One Piece Monster Pirates: Shadows&Zombies
by 4fireking
Summary: Sequel to One Piece Monster Pirates Black Purge Island. The rest of Momo's past before he became a bandit. Meanwhile, Jen and Razi have fights of their own. While Razi battles the freak Umbrage he learns that he is more than just a scary looking monster. But can Razi persuade him to stop attacking them?
1. Chapter 1

Momo ran while dragging his feet. While running, he wiped the floor and walls clean of dirt; he had to stop to change from floor to wall. But no matter how much dirt Momo wiped, Leopol just tossed more dirt and laughed. Leopol could move faster as he had two brushes strapped to his feet.

" Your going to have to move faster if you ever expect to beat me, Momo. Hahahahaha."

" Oh yeah. Watch this." Momo took a piece of loincloth out and wrapped it around his right foot with a brush under it. Because both his feet didn't have brushes, Momo had to stand on one foot when sliding. " I'm coming to get ya, master. Hahahahaha!"

Momo slide through the halls on his one brush. Momo soon caught up with Leopol, chuckled, then they started racing to the dojo.

" I'm going to win!" Momo laughed while he overlapped Leopol.

" Oh no your not!" Leopol laughed overlapping Momo.

It became a stalemate where neither Momo nor Leopol could out race the other. The race soon ended after Momo and Leopol both slipped and flew into the dojo. Giru and Emily were both already in the dojo, Giru training with his bo staff and Emily knitting, soon Leopol landed on the ground and Momo crashed on top of him.

" Oof!" Leopol groaned after Momo crashed on him.

" Hehehehehehehe," Momo laughed sheepishly while rubbing his head. " Sorry 'bout that, master. Hehehehehe."

" Oh, don't worry about it, Momo." Leopol stood up and got on top of Momo. Momo then started tickling Momo in his scaly armpits and the young fishman started laughing. " I'm just going to tickle you. Tickle, tickle, tickle."

" Hahahahahaha!" Momo laughed trying to smack Leopol's hands away. " Stop it, master, that tickles! Hahahahahaha!"

" What a bunch of nitwits," Giru shrugged watching Leopol tickling Momo, then scoffed when Momo changed positions and started tickling Leopol. " Their all just a bunch of shrubs."

" But that Momo is such a rowdy little fishman," Emily tittered watching Momo tickling Leopol, then giggled when Leopol stood up and both he and Momo tickled the other. " I hope we never split apart."

" Hahahahahahha!" Both Momo and Leopol laughed together. " Hahahahaha."

Momo was gone. Leopol, Emily and even Giru watched the young fishman jump into the water and swim towards the next island. The only thing Leopol did was stare at the water with his hands behind his back and pondered to himself.

" My predictions are usually wrong one out of ninety-nine percent, but I don't want to leave everything on chance. If Momo doesn't forget the turmoil of his past and think about his future, he is going to die. And there's nothing me I can do to stop him."

X_X_X_X

In an island not too far away from Leopol's house, the neighbour island too the one the marines found their dead friends body, the monster Razor was having a man slaughter. Through his carnage, Razor killed most villagers—men, women, children—he didn't stop until his thirst for blood was lavished.

Razor stood on a pile of dead bodies surrounded in a pool of blood. Razor, who was splattered with blood all over the blades protruding out of his body, stuck his tongue out and licked the blood clean off.

" Mmmmmmmmm." Razor mumbled licking the blood off his body. " This is quite an exquisite meal. It's almost enticing too me. Oh how I live for more."

" There he is!" A man shouted near Razor.

Razor lifted his head away from his razor body and saw five marines standing before him. Two of the marines carried pistols and three carried katana's. Most people would run seeing five marines, but Razor, the vicious monster that he was, he laughed seeing them.

" It's about time you boys showed up. I was starting to think you'd never come."

" Lieutenant , we need to use a buster call and fast!" One of the marines holding a gun shouted to a marine who was holding a sword. " It might no our only chance of winn—"

" Nonsense, cadet!" The lieutenant shouted at the marine holding a gun. " We don't need them to stop this thing. We can just blast him away with our guns. Men—" All three marines obeyed their lieutenant and raised their guns up and pointed them at Razor. " Open FIRE!"

Bullets discharged from all three marine pistols. The bullets hit Razor, bouncing off of his skin, and landing on the ground. Not a wound or dent was seen in Razor's skin or even the metal out of his body. Razor smiled snidely as he swayed his tail side by side.

" Is that really all you can muster? Honestly, marines are just so pathetic."'

" Quiet! Men, unsheathe!" All the marines who used guns previously unsheathed their katana's and pulled them all out. The metal of the marines' katana's glistened in the moonlight. Razor's blades and the puddle of blood glowed bright red from the moonlight—Razor's blades splattered with blood. " Men—" All five marines raised their katana's up and charged at Razor, shouting, " Charge!"

" Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"

All five marines charged towards Razor. Razor however just stood still and smiled snidely watching the marines running for him. Just when the marines were about to come close to reaching Razor, he whipped his tail at them. The blade on his tail killed four of the marines—the lieutenant still alive—and both Razor and the lieutenant saw the marines being cut in half.

" You marines are such foolish creatures," Razor scoffed as all the marines he cut in half fell down in eight pieces and piled on top of each other. " Didn't you know? My entire body is made out of weapons. Everything from knifes to axes are what made up my body. Only one percent of my body is still human, and that's my vulnerable area. But do you think for one second you can find it on your own, lieutenant?"

" Ahhhhhhhh!" The lieutenant shouted as he charged towards Razor again.

Razor didn't even want to fight back against the lieutenant. The lieutenant reached Razor and tried jabbing his katana into Razor's chest, but the weapon bodied monster just stood still and watched the lieutenant's katana bounce off his metal bodied. While he was attacking, a small vein popped out of the marines head and his face tinted red from anger.

" Ooh, I just love seeing the face of someone seeking revenge," Razor retorted profanely. " It reminds me of me when I was just as weak as you. Oh how I miss those days." Razor moved his arms and grabbed the lieutenant by his neck and held him up high. " Now this has been fun and all, but my mother, god rest her soul, told me never to play with my food. So I guess this is good-bye."

" Agghhhhhhh!" The lieutenant cried while he felt his neck by crushed by grinders from Razor's fingertips. " Y-you monster."

Razor just ignored the lieutenant and stuck his tail out to the marine. Razor soon slit the marines' throat and splattered the blade from his tail with his blood. The blade was strong enough to enter the marine's trachea, he squirmed in his last moments alive, then his body went limp, dead.

" I tried to warn you. But you stupid marines are too reckless." Razor dropped the marine lieutenants' dead corpse and raised the blade of his tail to his mouth and lick the blood clean. " Mmmmmmmm. Tasty. But I probably should've been a little more moderate. Now that I've killed every single villager, there's no one left for me to play with. Tsk. What a cliché."

" Hey!" A young boy shouted behind Razor. Razor noticed the young boy too be Momo as he spun his body around. Momo took out his metal pipe and pointed it at Razor, growled. " I'm going to kill YOU!"

" Goody, goody!" Razor giggled clapping his steel hands together. " A survivor! Someone for me to play with!"

" You fiend!" Momo growled clenching his hands on the back of his metal pipe. " You'll pay! You'll pay for your crimes! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Momo ran towards the heinous monster Razor. Momo's thoughts were transpiring. Momo reached Razor and thrusted the tip of his metal pipe against Razor. Momo's pipe banged against Razor's body, bouncing off, but Momo continued to jab at him. As he was jabbing, Momo's eyes turned red from him being berserk.

" Ha, nice try, fishy," Razor retorted snidely while Momo was thrusting his pipe at him. " My body's made entirely out of weapons. Do you want to see how?" Razor slashed his tail into his chest. A large wound opened up but Razor didn't even flinch. Razor reached into the hole of his large wound and pulled a metal axe out. " See? I ate a very rare Devil Fruit. My weapons like an alveoli cell inside a honeycomb that grows from the tiniest feeling of air. First they start off small, then they become big."

" I-jab-don't-jab-care!" Momo exclaimed still jabbing his metal pipe at Razor. After he realized his attempts were futile, Momo repositioned himself, hunched over, and raised his pipe under Razor's eyes. " If I can't hurt your chest, then maybe I'll jab you in your eyes. Yahhhhhhh!"

Momo thrusted his metal pipe towards Razor's eyes, but his weapon just bounced off just like his last attacks. " W-what?"

" Ha. You didn't really think I'd leave myself vulnerable in my eyes, did you? Whether you see it or not, there's a prism shaped piece of glass around my eyes. You could use a chainsaw if you wanted to cut through the glass, but you'll just break it because my glass is virtually indestructible. In fact, you could use a chainsaw on any parts and you wouldn't even sever a limb. Every part of my body is indestructible! Muwahahahahaha!"

" N-no…this can't be true—"

Momo was confused, shocked, he could then sense an incoming attack coming from Razor. Momo somersaulted backwards just before he was nearly sliced by Razor's tail.

" Hmf." Razor moaned seeing his attack miss. Razor then smiled with the same snide look he gave too the marines. " I'm impressed. Not many people are able to avoid my attacks. And the only ones who've done that are my fellow Shichibukai brothers, and one sister."

" You bastard!" Momo exclaimed standing up again. Momo's eyes were red, his teeth were growling and he spinned his metal pipe around." Bastard! Bastard! Bastard! BASTARD!" Even though Momo's eyes were berserk, tears dripped from his eyes. "You took my mother away from me. My beautiful mother was kind to everyone and wouldn't hurt a fly. And you just slaughtered her like she was nothing, you monster!"

" I don't know who you're referring too," Razor smirked. "I've killed so many people in my life; it's hard to keep track of all of them. But there are times I dream about when I killed them. And when I do dream about killing them, it's always a gentle lullaby that helps me sleep. Ooh, how I love watching people die."

Momo couldn't stand seeing Razor toy with him any longer. Momo raised his pipe like a javelin and charged too him faster than a horse. While running, Momo shouted, " Monster! Monster! Monster! MONSTE—"

Just when Momo was about to reach Razor, where he'd be sliced in half by Razor's fast, stealth tail, someone in the shadows dashed in, grabbed Momo, and dashed away from Razor with Momo in his hands. Razor, who had no one to face, frowned.

" Hmph. It really grinds my gears seeing people ignore me. Now just where would you be hiding, fishboy?" Razor heard a creaking sound in a rickety, old, huge wooden store. He thought it was held together by tooth picks and glue. Razor whipped his tail at the store and sliced it in half. The structure of the store collapsed, but he didn't see anyone. " So, you're not in there? What a pity. I might have to tear down every building if I don't find you soon, fishboy."

X_X_X_X_

Momo couldn't speak as an ominous person's cold hands' rubbed the back of his scaly neck. Momo saw Leopol as the one who saved him—at least, he thought so, until he got a closer look at the person and saw him wearing a ninja attire—his whole body covered in silk black sheets, an obi sash around his waist, and pieces of paper and hawk feathers with black ink on the tip.

" M-master?" Momo stuttered looking into the same eyes of his master; the only part not covered in black sheets. " Master, is that you?"

The man didn't usher a word. He took out a piece of paper and hawk feather from his obi sash and used the feather to write on the paper. The man then stopped writing on the paper and showed it too Momo:

**It's me, Momo **

**I'm wearing this too help me blend in with the shadows. And, it's not good for you to keep talking. The creature you're facing, he can hear you through the vibrations of your voice on his metal. **

**Now if you'll follow me, I'll lead you back home.**

"W-why are you even here? I'm not your pupil anymore. So just go home."

Leopol turned his head down to Momo, staring at him as if to say, " I'm here to help, so just shush"; then he slipped his head forward to get a better view of Razor. While he was watching Razor; he was also writing on another piece of paper. Leopol then showed the letter too Momo:

**There is something you don't know, Momo. You're not destined to survive this fight. If we don't leave now, I'm certain you're going to die.**

" Me...dead?"

" That's right," Giru said quietly as he appeared out of the shadows behind Leopol. Giru was angry, his arms were crossed, and he was glaring at Momo. " We had to have a vote on whether we were going to risk saving you or not. Master vouched for you, I of course wanted to just leave you, but Emily also vouched we go. She also wouldn't stop pestering the master too go. So why don't you just do us all a favor and come with us."

Momo had only two options: live or die. We could go back to Leopol's—live the rest of his life training and being happy—but would eventually forget the calm, peaceful face of his mother. But he could fight—no matter how slim it looked he would survive—no longer having a family or a home.

" You guys..." Momo's body was fidgety. Momo's hands become sweaty and he was trembling. He clenched his metal pipe in his, then growled through his sharp, jagged teeth. " You guys should just leave me alone! I don't care what you feel! I chose revenge over everything!"

Razor was just standing behind Momo. With great speed, Momo dashed away from Leopol and Giru and jumped towards Razor. Razor saw Momo too late, the fishman was already on his ground level, he pulled his metal pipe back and whacked it straight into Razor's right shin.

" Oh no!" Giru shouted seeing Momo hit Razor's shin with his metal pipe.

Leopol too was startled, took out another piece of paper, and wrote on it:

**Oh no **

" He saw us!" Giru shouted at his master Leopol with devil-like eyes and serrated teeth. " Stop writing!"

Razor was shocked. Unlike the previous attacks Momo did on him, blood dripped out of Razor's shin. Razor, who was once shocked by Momo's attack, smiled snidely.

" Congratulations, fishman. You've found my Achilles' heel. "

Razor fell over from the pain he felt in his shin. While he fell over, vulnerable too be attacked, Momo glared at Razor and raised his metal pipe over the monsters head, growled.

" You'll pay. Yaahhhhhhh!" Momo whacked his pipe down towards Razor. But before the pipe could touch him, Razor's tail whipped out and stabbed Momo straight through his chest. "Agh!" The blade soon lunged out of Momo and the fishman fell towards the ground. " Nooooooooo!"


	2. Chapter 2

Momo fell and crashed on the ground. Momo was stabbed in one of his bone narrows right beside his spleen. An ordinary human would've died instantly being struck there, but Momo's anatomy was constructed differently, though it didn't stop how he was immobilized and bleeding from his chest.

" It's a shame," Razor said snidely. " If you used a sword instead of that weak pipe, you could've sliced my foot off and I'd surely bleed to death. But I guess that doesn't matter to me now that you're about to die." Razor, who stood limply up because his right shin was injured, moved his tail up as he prepared to finish Momo with it, smiled. " Don't get me wrong, fishman. I had a lot of fun playing with you. I wish we could've played just a little longer, but I've got other things to do. Farewell then, fishman."

Momo wanted to run—he wanted to fight back against the merciless, villainous Razor—but the wound in his chest near his spleen left him incapacitated. The only thing could do was remorse while Razor laughed heinously from his mouth.

" You're my family—Giru, Emily and Momo. As long as you stay with me, I won't let anything bad happen to you. And I'll do it again and again because I love you all the same. So until the day you become strong, smart adults, please stay by my side. "

" Master was right," Momo thought while reminiscing. I-I was just so angry. Master, I'm sorry—"

" Momo! Nooooooooo!"

Emily jumped out from beside Momo and pushed him out of Razor's way. But as Momo was out of Razor's way, Emily was in the path of his tail. In just one second—one second where Momo was staring into Emily's eyes, her waist was cut in half by Razor's sharp tail.

" Emily!" " Emily!"

Seeing Emily fall with her body cut in half nearly brought tears to Momo's eyes. Without a second of hesitation, Momo quickly ran towards Emily and kneeled down as he held her top half in his arms—the saddest part was she was still alive.

" M-Momo?" Emily calmly said. Despite having her body cut off, she had a smile on her face and small tears dripping from her eyes. " You didn't get hurt, did you, Momo?"

" Forget about me!" Momo shouted. As he held Emily in his arms, tears dripped from his eyes. " What the hell were you thinking? I-I mean… just look at you."

" Momo."

" W-What?"

" I'm sorry I made you cry, Momo. Please don't be sad. Try to be happy."

" H-how can you say that? It should have been me! I-I should've been the one he cut, so why did you try to protect me? I'm just a monster! I'm nothing but a big, scary, scaly monster! Why would you do this for me?"

Emily at first didn't answer Momo. In her last moments of breath—last moments she got to stare, smile at Momo—Emily raised her fragile arms up and rubbed Momo's face. His face of course felt rough because of his scales, but Emily didn't seem to care.

" Your eyes…their so gentle. You have the same kind eyes my brother always had. Just like you, he always felt like he was different, but just like you he'd seek comfort being near me. In all the time I've been sewing with you like I would with my brother, Momo, it made me so happy." Emily slowly raised her head up and kissed Momo's left cheek. Momo may've been a fishman, may've had rough scales instead of smooth skin, but his cheeks tinted red from embarrassment and he blushed. " Thank you for everything you've done, Momo."

In an instant—Momo couldn't stop, change, but could only watch—Emily's spirit left her body and she died in Momo's arms. Momo may've been a fishman who couldn't feel the warmth of skin, but he could feel her skin become frigid, and the coldness made Momo cry.

" Emily…no. Emily, please…please don't leave me. Emily…" Momo raised Emily up as he hugged her tightly. " I'm sorry."

" Aww isn't that sweet." Razor said in a wicked voice. Momo could almost hear his tail swaying in his sadistic joy. " The fishman loves the human. But I guess it doesn't mean anything now. That girl is dead, and you trying to be the hero got her killed by me. But don't be so sad. It's not truly good-bye." Momo turned his head back, and then he saw Razor with his teeth clenched. " You can join her in the afterlife!"

Razor pulled his tail back and prepared stinging him with his long tail. Momo, even though he was about to be stabbed, he was too sad too move. While he was immobilized, crying, a shadow scurried behind Momo and stood between the sad fishman and the vile Razor.

" Flicker-Flicker Push!"

The person hiding behind the shadows flicked his fingers at Razor's most vital area; his shin. Razor was pushed far away by the man hiding behind the shadows. Razor was pushed into the air, flying high into the sky, but didn't scream.

" M-master?" Momo turned his body around, where he was still holding Emily's body, and he saw Master Leopol and Giru standing before him. " Master, it really is you. "

" That's right, it is me, Momo. Even though you might be said, it's that feat of bravery that helped me. By hitting his vital spot, I managed to use my Flicker-Flicker technique. It's a special kind of Rokushiki marital art that I've learned to master."

" That's right!" Giru shouted optimistically while raising both his arms up. " You're the best, master! You can stop this thing, right?"

Leopol however looked grim as he tilted his head down. " No, Giru, I can't."

" Huh? What do you mean?"

" I mean I'm not strong enough to stop him. I-I just don't have the strength too. I'm sorry, Giru."

" Hahaha. You're joking, right? You can actually stop this thing, right? You're supposed to be the greatest martial art fighter in the world. If you're not the strongest, then why am I taking lessons from you?"

" I'm sorry, Giru, but I just don't have the strength to win."

" You liar! You told me you could make me strong! I went under your wing just for the sake of becoming strong, then I was suppose to beat you and become the greatest martial artist in the world! But you failed me, you liar!"

Momo, Giru and Leopol then heard the sound of rustling off in the distance. Without a moment too lose, Giru dashed from away from Momo and Leopol and ran to where the noise was coming from. As he ran, Giru's body glowed bright white just like he did the first time he faced Momo. But then Leopol appeared in front of Giru and held his hand out too stop him from moving.

" Just what are you trying to do, Giru?"

" What does it look like? I'm going to beat this thing where you failed. I'm going to use my Devil Fruit power on it."

" You can't. The power of your Devil Fruit is stilly massively unstable. And you still haven't finished your training."

" Forget that! When I beat this thing, I'll be known forever as the greatest warrior in history. How do you like that, Leopo— " Leopol stopped Giru by holding his hands out and hugging the small, callow student." W-what are you doing?"

" I'm just showing you the love and affection your family spurned from you. You're my very first student—you've always been like a son to me—and yet I've never once hugged you like a father should. But I'm afraid I need you to do something for me, Giru."

" Huh? What could you possibly want me to do for you?"

Leopol raised his right hand up and prepared to karate chop Giru behind his neck. " I need you to be strong. I need you to live on. In time, you'll need to fight. But that is not today." Leopol chopped Giru behind his neck, and Giru was unconscious on contact.

" Master!" Momo shouted seeing Leopol knock Giru out. " Why did you do that?"

" I had to do it, Momo. If he used his Devil Fruit Powers, things would turn into a genocide. Now…" Leopol switched Giru's unconscious body with Emily's dead body; he made Momo hold Giru while he held Emily's top half. " I need you to get out of here, Momo."

" What? I'm not leaving you. You said so yourself that I'm no longer your pu—"

Leopol raised his hand in defense. Leopol shushed Momo, walked up to Momo, then he rubbed the young fishman's head. " No matter whether I'm your master or not, you'll always be my pupil. But you need to think things for yourself, Momo. "

" Master…"

" And as for you going…" Leopol prepared to flick his fingers; he pressed his index finger against his pinky and walked up to Momo, smiled. " I wasn't 'asking' you. Flicker-Flicker Push!"

Just like with Razor, Leopol flicked his fingers, but this time he did it on Momo's chest. And just like before but with different people, Momo with Giru were both pushed far away by Leopol. Leopol took sympathy on them and smiled watching them fly.

" Good-bye, you young child's. I wish I could've been with you just a little bit longer."

" It's time for you to die, old man!" Razor shouted from behind. Leopol turned his head around and saw the villainous Razor sauntering towards Leopol with a snide smile on his face. " I enjoy the scent of blood; really I do. And killing someone as old as you will give quite the scent. But are there any last words you'd like to say, oldy?"

Leopol took off his top clothes and exposed his chest. Leopol then clapped his hands together as his body glowed bright white. As he was glowing, Leopol smirked.

" I have something I'd like to tell you." Leopol held his hands out and small white balls glowed bright white. " Before I trained in the art of martial arts, I ate a Devil Fruit. The name of the Devil Fruit was Bomu Bomu no Mi Fruit ( Boom Boom Fruit). My entire body is a massive dynamite that's set to blow. "

" Ha. That's not going to scare me, oldy! Even if you do manage to blow up this entire village, it won't do anything against me. I'm not only made out of weapons but I'm also larva too them. I'll just grow back."

" I know I'm not strong enough to defeat you. But that doesn't mean I can't lesion you." Leopol slowly ran towards Razor. While he was running, he stretched both his arms out. " By the time you recover, I know two strong, noble fighters will come and put a stop to your rein of terror. And I know this because—" Leopol finally reached Razor, jumped up while his body was still glowing, smiled." Those fighters are my sons."

Leopol's eyes glowed with a red ultraviolet light. Red ultraviolet light glowed everywhere out of Leopol's skin. Leopol's body wasn't a dynamite, it was a bomb, about to explode, it went…

BOOM!

X_X_X_X_X

Back in the present, Momo of whom had been badly wounded and was bleeding blood everywhere from his body, finally returned to the reality of his dilemma.

" He called me his son. A human actually called a fishman like me his son. I-I made a vow after that fateful day. I promised myself I would never let anyone else close to me get hurt—Daniel and Razi. I promise the two of you, Razi, Daniel, I will get strong so I can protect both of you."

Through the turmoil of Momo's past and the pain of having water gushing against his blood, Momo felt something swelling up inside of him. Momo felt energized—he felt like his rage was giving him power—but with it he started going berserk.

" I WILL BECOME STRONG!"

X_X_X_X

Doctor in his obscene beast body had moved to the water where Momo was pushed into. Doctor had a deviant smile on his face as he thought about the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance—all of which he had but no longer felt content too after seeing Momo drown.

" And that takes care of you, fishy. Now I can finally get on with—what?" Doctor couldn't see himself as he was blinded by his rage, so he was surprised seeing the hideous, animalistic face of a purple-furred lion reflection in the water. " No! That can't be me! What happened to my face? Where is my beautiful face?"

Doctor trembled seeing his own reflection in the water; he found himself to be morbid and grotesque. But remembering his sister Emily and remembering her untimely death, Doctor growled from his jagged, serrated lion teeth.

" Damn them all! They're nothing but disgusting creatures anyways! They did this to me! And I'll make them all pa—"

Small bubbles soon floated out of the water. Dozens of bubbles were floating out, flying into the sky, then popping. Then underneath the water came the cold, scary eyes of the fishman Momo. His eyes were in full berserk—red, wide, glaring—and they seemed to be glaring at Doctor.

" I don't want to hurt you," A loud voice growled out from Momo's vocal chords. " But this senseless violence must end." A small whirlpool started to spin around Momo in the center of the water. As the water was spinning, small water droplets splashed out of the water and drizzled on Doctor. " Fishman Karate: Crasher Lake!"

Momo slammed his left arm on the surface of the water. As he did, the water at the other end was pushed up and a giant tidal wave roared towards Doctor. Doctor didn't' move. He was too shocked, angry, and was sucked in by the tidal wave, and then he was pushed by the massive wave underwater.

" Shit, my Devil Fruit weakness is catching up! I can't even move a muscle! Am I going to drown like this?"

Momo however had other plans for Doctor. The berserk fishman kicked his webbed feet into the water and pushed Doctor into the rocks below the waterfall. Doctor smashed into the rocks as he was weak, fell off the rock's surface and fell straight into the water. He made a giant splash while he falled.

Meanwhile, under the water Doctor was no longer angry. The water felt so peaceful and relaxed the once angry doctor. As he sank to the bottom of the water, where his body felt like it weighed 500 tons, he smiled thinking back to his sister.

" I am defeated. I now understand it wasn't the fishman's fault. Sister, though you are kind, your kindness was your undoing. I guess it's just up to you, Yoh and Umbrage. I know you'll fight your hardest. And for you, sister, I just want you to know…" Doctor closed his eyes and kept them shut to get a vivid image of his sister Emily smiling in his mind. " I'll be joining you soon enough. I want us to play together…just like we used too."

X_X_X_X

Lucas finally woke up after being out for so long. The first thing she felt was the pain of her recently stitched arm. Wrenching, gasping, Lucas applied pressure too her hand to stop any more pain.

" W-where am I?" Lucas thought out loud turning her head both ways too get a better view of the forest. " Jen? Jen, are you around here, Jen? Jen?"

" I'm afraid it's no use calling out for his help, captain," the snide voice of Yoh said somewhere nearby.

Lucas turned her head around. Behind her was the devious, ruthless smile of the traitorous pirate Yoh. He had both his hands behind his back, had his left leg over his right leg, and chuckled while clenching his teeth together.

" Yo-ack!" Lucas shouted after the pain in her arm started acting again. " Damn. If he tries to attack me, I'm a sitting duck. Stupid, useless arm." Lucas looked everywhere for Jen as he was the only member of her crew not being controlled. " Hey, where is Jen."

" Ooh, he's around her, captain. Or should I say ex-captain?" Yoh finally raised his arms out from behind his back and showed Lucas what was in his hands—she gasped in horror. Yoh had the severed, decapitated head of Jen in his arms. " Take a good look at this, Lucas. This is what will become of you. Muwahahahahaha!" Lucas's fear outweighed her pain. Seeing her beloved Nakama Jen's head, which was being held by the snide, ruthless Yoh, the trims of Lucas's eyes turned red as she mourned him and cried.

" J-Jen."

" Ha!" Yoh laughed snidely. " It's a funny thing with this one. Even when he was on the peak of death, he never stopped believing you'd come and rescue him. In fact, before he died, he kept yelling—" Yoh raised Jen's decapitated head beside his face and made a worried face like he was impersonating Jen. " Captain! Captain Lucas please save me!" Yoh's face returned to the snide, wicked smile and he raised Jen's head over his head. " Then, when he died, he said—" Yoh closed his eyes, opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. " Cappppptttttaiinnnnn—Ugggggghhhhhhh!"

" Y-you bastard!" Lucas exclaimed, though when she did she winced from the pain in her arms.


	3. Chapter 3

Lucas's mind couldn't overcome the feelings of grief in her mind—sorrow, loneliness, broken heart, forlorn suffering, desolation—and she couldn't stand seeing Yoh laugh at her Nakama's death and touching his head up and down like a basketball.

" Haha! That was such a riot!" Yoh caught Jen's head and stuffed it between his right arm under his elbows. Yoh sneered his teeth at Lucas as he walked slowly towards her. " You can continue sulking if you want, Lucas, but it's not going to bring him back. But what you can do is sit still for me. I finally understood why you rejected me." Yoh reached down and clamped his hands on Lucas's hair. With a small tug, Yoh pulled her head up. " It was because I was treating you like a lady. Apparently you're too tomboyish you've forgotten how a woman is treated. Well now I'm going to treat you like a man."

" B-bastard—"

Yoh ignored Lucas and kicked her in her stomach. Silhouette of the tree branches shadowed the misery in her face, but Lucas was coughing up blood every time Yoh kicked her. Lucas wanted to run, she just wanted to get away from Yoh with the severed head of her Nakama, but her debilitated injured arm wouldn't let her move. She could only bleed and cry about her sorrow.

" You're my bitch! (kick) And I'm going to train you to act just like a bitch should! (kick) I'll rectify you of everything you have with spunk (kick) , pugnacity (kick), and your own free thoughts so you'll be obedient too me—"

BANG!

A bullet was shot from behind and charged straight into Yoh's back. When the bullet made contact, a small shock of electricity hit his back. Yoh was more confused than shocked. As Yoh turned his head around, he saw the body of Jen. What he saw wasn't the real Jen, but Jen without his head and holding one of Lucas's revolvers.

" Impossible!" Yoh exclaimed seeing headless Jen with Lucas's guns. "You should be dead!"

" J-Jen…?" Lucas moaned while she was still on the ground, but smiled weakly seeing her Nakama's headless body. " Jen."

Yoh was less than pleased, reached down his back and pulled out a giant axe with a giant blade, shouted, " If cutting of your head won't kill you than I'll slice you into mincemeat!" Yoh ran slowly while stomping his feet on the ground and making loud echoing sounds. When Yoh was near Jen's body, he raised his axe over his head and then he chopped his axe down. " Die!"

Yoh missed his swing. Just before his axe could slice through the skin of Jen's body, an orange ball of light flew out of the hole on Jen's neck and Jen's body fell on the ground. Yoh didn't like missing. He huffed, puffed, and he swinged his axe around and yelling like a baboon while swinging it.

" Come on!" Yoh shouted swinging his axe around. " Show yourself! You can't hide yourself from me, whoever you are! I am going to slice you up—"

Out of nowhere, behind Yoh's back, a giant piece of bark flew out from behind and smacked him in his back. Yoh was ticked off as his head was red and his eyes became white. Turning around, Yoh sliced his giant axe at the bark, but a small orange ball of light flew out before his axe made contact.

Yoh blinked seeing the orange light, his lips became lisp, he muttered, " What the—"

Another piece of bark then flew out from behind and smacked into Yoh's back. Yoh sliced the bark in half, but another log flew out and smacked Yoh behind his back, again. Dozens of giant pieces of bark soon came out of different directions and smacked into Yoh in all sides.

" This is just—" A piece of bark smacked into Yoh's face and then fell down. " Getting—" A piece of bark smacked into Yoh's face and then fell down. " Ridiculous!"

Yoh was being bombarded by a barrage of bark. Yoh continued swinging his axe around, he was trying to find the source responsible for his vexation, but every time he sliced one piece of bark a small orange ball of light just flew out of the bark before he made contact.

" I know someone's responsible for this," Yoh thought as he was bombarded by bark. " But who can it be? Lucas is crying like a dog below my feet, all of her crew are under Doctors' drug, and Flinch, Doctor and Umbrage should've taken care of those pests she was with. The only one left is…Jen."

Everything became silent as pieces of bark stopped firing at Yoh. But as the bark finally stopped hitting him, Yoh could hear the sound of something rolling towards him. Below his feet, seen by the twilight of the moon, Yoh saw the head of Jen rolling towards him.

" No…it can't be…"

The head of Jen rolled too Yoh's feet. Yoh picked up Jen's head and raised it too his head. Jen's face looked pale, his hair seemed to be sparkling, but otherwise Jen seemed the same as when Yoh saw him with his head attached.

" This is just too spooky—"

" Boo!"

Even though he was just a head, Jen's eyes popped open and he laughed in Yoh's face. Yoh dropped the head and let it fall to the ground. While Jen's head was on the ground, he rolled backwards to his decapitated body and laughed from his mouth.

" J-Jen?" Lucas mumbled as she was confused. Jen then saw Lucas and the small puddle of blood she coughed up. Jen's head rolled to Lucas, stopped in her puddle of blood, and he smiled. " Is that really you, Jen?"

" Yep. And let me just point out it's nice to be on your blood, captain, but I'd appreciate it more if you could stand up."

" Impossible!" Yoh shouted behind Jen. " I cut your head off! You should be dead."

" Silly Yoh. You can't kill me. " All the animation in Jen's head went away and he closed his eyes as a small ball of orange light seeped out. Jen's headless body then walked in, grabbed Jen's head by its hair, and pulled him up as he placed it over his hole. A coating of orange light glowed from Jen's body, then Jen's head smirked. " You can't kill me because—" Jen ripped his shirt off. Under his shirt, two large holes were on his upper left and far right parts of his body. " I'm already dead."

" W-what?" Yoh and Lucas both stammered together.

" That's right. See, before I died, I ate a Devil Fruit. I believe the locals where I found it called it the Tamashii Tamashii no Mi Fruit ( Soul Soul Fruit). They also called me a Fukkatsu Ningen ( Reviving Human). Unlike Soul King, who you probably know as Brook from the Straw Hat Pirates, my soul isn't just something that lies in a persons' body; it's me entirely. My whole mind is really in that green, small smoke we call our souls."

" Y-you mean too tell me you're…immortal?" Yoh gawked as he stuttered in fear.

" Not really. Since my soul is me, if what I'm putting it in is destroyed before I can leave or my soul is destroyed when it leaves that vessel, I too will die."

" Heh. Too bad for you."

Yoh heard the sound of moaning off in the distance—almost like zombies were stepping towards him—but he smiled hearing their noises. From behind him Lucas's possessed crew walked in. They all avoided Yoh as they walked past him and headed towards Jen.

" Are you scared now, Jen?"

" Meh." Jen scoffed and smirked while he moved his head down. " I have no reason to be afraid of my own crew." Jen then clutched his hands together as he glared into Yoh's eyes. " But I hate you with every essence of my soul. I will fight you for Captain Lucas and everyone in her crew you hurt, you monster!"

" What a cliché. You're about to be killed by your own Nakama's, and yet you feel resentment towards me; a traitor. I can understand what your ordeal is, but I just don't understand you, Jen." Yoh smiled snidely while every member took out their weapons—axes, katana's, swords, chains, knives—and they all glared at Jen with their cold eyes. " And I don't have too. These men are going to end your miserable, soulless life. Men, attack!"

All of Lucas's crew charged at Jen with their weapons held up high. Jen however didn't try running forward or running back as his body was covered in an orange glow. A small orange ball of light seeped out of Jen's mouth, zoomed on the closet member who carried an axe, then the orange ball entered the axe-wielding members' mouth.

" Gulp."

The man's body then started to glow bright orange. Jen possessed the pirate inside his body. The man spun around, turned his face to the nearest member, and he whacked the dull side of his axe into his face. The axe-wielding pirate soon went into a frenzy where he continued whacking his axe in the sides of the pirates' faces.

" Your enemy has taking over his mind!" Yoh shouted to his group of pirates. " Get the one with the axe!"

The pirates did as Yoh told them and attacked Jen while he his soul was possessing the pirate wielding an axe. But while they were attacking the axe-wielding pirates, Jen's orange soul seeped out of the pirates mouth and entered through the mouth of a pirate holding a knife.

There was soon a brawl between Jen's soul and all of the pirates. One pirate punched the pirate with Jen's soul harboring inside of him, but Jen's soul seeped out and entered through the other pirates' soul. These actions were recapped, pirates attacked Jen but he controlled them, then a stronger pirate would fight him. But with every body Jen switched too, the previous one lost consciousness.

Lucas watched while in great pain, saw her Nakama Jen taking down the hordes of her own pirates, smiled. " You're really something, Jen. I'm surprised by how much you've grown. Not only can you win, but maybe one day you'll be stronger than me." It was then she noticed one of her revolvers lying on the ground, smiled. " But that days not today."

Jen finally switched to the pirate with a chain and giant rock attached to the end. Jen spinned his chain in circles, stretched the rock out around his body, and slamming it into other pirates' faces. The pirates all collapsed—they were unconscious; not dead—but Jen still had to get out of the other pirates body and move back to his original pale body—which he did.

All of Lucas's pirates were knocked out. Jen could hear the sound of their breath while they were silently breathing. But while all of Lucas's pirates were down, Jen, who had a knife cleaned from blood in his hands, walked up to the vile, traitorous pirate Yoh.

" H-hey…you're not still mad about me cutting off your head and all?" Yoh murmured staring at the red-trims of Jens' glaring eyes. "I-I was just kidding with you is all. I know you would survive, Jen. You seem like a good, docile, gentle boy." Jen stood in front of Yoh with his head impeding what he'd do with his knife. " So why don't we let bygones be bygones and just move on—"

Yoh quickly swinged his axe out and tried slicing it through Jen's body. His axe went to a stop, blood trickling out covering the axe, and Yoh laughed snidely. " Jokes on you, Jen. Haha! I'm going to kill you, then I'm going to kill that daughter of a liar and a tramp!"

Yoh pushed his axe down too add pressure and deepen the wound he inflicted on Jen. As he was pressing down, making gushes of blood ooze out, Yoh was smiling wickedly and chuckled to himself. It wasn't until he pushed as far as he could—losing all the numbness in his arms—he saw the blade of the axe turning around and actually cutting through Yoh's hands.

" You're small brain hampers your ability to actually swing a weapon, Yoh," Jen said inside of Yoh's giant axe. The axe pulled out and a small blood bleeding with blood was seen. " My soul allows me to control anything that's inanimate or that doesn't have a will of its own. With this axe you've been holding onto for so long, I'm the one who's going to slice you into mincemeat."

The wood in Yoh's axe turned around and nearly sliced through Yoh's head, but Yoh dropped his axe and jumped back before his axe could touch him. It wasn't over yet as the axe stood up, the metal head bending up and looking at Yoh, and the wood jumping towards him.

Yoh was scared, his mouth was lisp, and he crawled back while his own axe was jumping towards him. While it was jumping, Yoh started to sweat drop.

" Stay back!" Yoh shouted . The axe spinned around and prepared to hack into Yoh. " Noooooooooo!"

"Blazing Shotgun!"

One of Lucas's bullets fired into Yoh's chest and a small explosion came out. The explosion scorched Yoh's chest, he yammered in pain, then he fell on the ground. Jen turned his head around and saw Lucas as she was holding one of her revolvers in her unstitched arm.

" Captain?" Jen asked while he was looking down at Lucas. " Why didn't you let me have my way with Yoh, captain? He committed treason and mutiny against our crew. He deserves to die—"

Lucas fired a warning shot besides Jen to shush him up. Lucas then dropped her gun. She used her free arm to push herself up and limply moved towards Jen. While walking, she breathed raspy and was sweating.

" Even-_ack_-scum like him-_ack_-doesn't deserve to die-_ack_-Jen." Lucas walked besides Jen's right side. Jen turned his head to the right and saw Lucas's smiling face. " You're-_ack_-different from-_ack_-him, Jen. You're strong, kind and noble."

" Umm, thank you, captain. That was really amazing shooting you did back there, captain."

" Well of course." Lucas stood triumphantly as she placed her unstitched hand on her waist and started laughing out loud. " I am the daughter of the greatest sharpshooter in all of the blue seas. I am the daughter of the great Sogeking. But I will remember him of the man my mother mentioned, who both looking out for me even when they're dead, Ussop the pirate."

" That's great to hear, captain. Now please excuse me." Jen stomped up to Yoh as he grabbed his scorched body by the collar and pulled him up. " Yoh, you're charged with mutiny and have committed treason against your captain. What do you have to say for yourself?"

But while Jen was squeezing Yoh by his neck, Yoh started laughing snidely. " I say you and your bitch of a captain is dead. You may've defeated me, and if by some miracle you're able to defeat Flinch and Doctor, you'll never be able to defeat Umbrage. His lust for blood is strong! You'll never be able to stop hi—"

" Shut up!" Lucas raised her revolver up and raised it at Yoh. She fired a small bullet from her gun and it went straight into Yoh's chest. When he was hit, Yoh felt tired, lethargic and closed his eyes as he snored soundly. " My tranquilizer bullets work like a charm. He should be out for a few hours. But while he's asleep, Jen, I need you to get a branch or a piece of rope and tie him out."

" Aye aye, captain."

Jen ran away from Lucas to look for a tree with a friable branch. As he looked for a branch, looking both ways, he noticed a pair of footsteps he believed were Razi's.

" Razi sure has been gone for a while. I hope he's alright. Could he actually have met—""

" Jen, over here!"

Jen flinched at the sound of Lucas's voice. Jen then ran too where Lucas was lying. Lucas was scared, she was sweating, and her fingers twitched at something ahead of her.

" What is it, captain?"

" Jen…l-lo-look…"

Jen looked down at where Lucas was pointing. It was his great horror and mystery that he saw the shadow of a tree. Only when he was looking at the shadow, gasping in the process, he saw what looked like knife marks on the shadow of the tree—the real tree itself was perfectly fine.

" Could this be…Umbrage?"

X_X_X_X_X

" Crap!" Razi shouted while he was scratching through the bark of a tree in his wolf form. " Which way is North?" Razi then went into a frenzy scratching the bark of the tree like it was his scratching post. " North (scratch)! North ( scratch)! North ( scratch)!"

Razi was having trouble finding the nearest stream. After searching under rocks, around trees, and even under the ground, Razi couldn't find even the smallest drop of water. Being the irrational, thick-headed person that he was, Razi felt comfort using his claws against something, but it eventually became tiring for him.

" I-_ack_-must-_ack_-get that water for-_ack_-Jen. I made a-_ack_-promise to-_ack_-him."

Razi leaned his body against the bark of the tree. Razi damaged the tree more than he thought so, and as he applied pressure to it, he pushed the tree down.

It was by coincidence—no, a miracle was the word Razi would use—behind the large stump of a tree was a small pond of water seeing at the end of the woods. Razi's eyes sparkled like stars seeing the pond of water, then without thought he sprinted through the trees and headed for the pond.

" Water here I come—"

Razi was ambushed by a strong, furry creature. Razi was pushed to the ground by the strange creature and he saw how the creature was pigmented. The creature was also ravenous, he was snarling his fangs and sticked his pitchfork of a tongue out, and he was choking Razi around his neck.

Razi however was just as ravenous as the creature. His mouth was the only part of his body that wasn't restrained, so Razi bit the creature on his neck. The creature howled in pain feeling Razi's serrated sharp teeth squeezing through his neck. While the pain of sharp metal was piercing through his body, Razi let go and ran for the pond of water.

" Got to get that water back to Jen. Got to get that water back to Jen."


	4. Chapter 4

Everything looked to be in the clear as Jen finally reached the pond of water. But as he was close to the pool, two of the same pigmented creatures jumped out of the woods and growled at Jen.

" Gorowrrr!" The two creatures shouted together in perfect sync

Razi was undaunted by the scary, razor sharp teethed creatures. Remembering how he promised himself he'd get Jen the water for his captain, living up to the bushido code a friend of his stepfather Phoenix Fire taught him, Razi jumped over the wolves using his strong, agile wolf legs and scurried towards the pond.

" Water here I come!" Razi shouted triumphantly as he unfolded the bandana Momo gave him around his head, dipped it into the water, then used his bandana as a sac to carry the water with. " Now all I have to do is get this back to Je—"

Both creatures jumped up behind Razi and pushed him into the pond. Though the water wasn't that deep, Razi's head plunged into the small depths of the water, and he couldn't move from his weakness in the sea. All Razi could do was hear the deranged, remorseless growls of the creatures above him.

" Wolf Wolf…" Razi thought about his attack because words couldn't come out of his mouth undersea. Above the surface, Razi's long, furry wolf tail was wrapped around one of the creature's legs. Razi's tail theoretically had a mind of its own, squeezed the creatures' leg, then it springed up. As the tail swinged up, Razi surfaced out of the water like a catapult, shouted, " Tail Whip!"

Razi whipped himself to the two creatures and crashed on top of both of them. They were both crushed by Razi's weight—actually, Razi wasn't that heavy—but his feet, with toenails as sharp as razors, scratched right through their eyes; that pushed them down.

Razi then found his bandana filled with water lying beside the two creatures. Razi pulled his toenails out of their eye sockets, ran up to his sac, then he grabbed his sac and made way back too Jen.

"Gorowrrr!" One of the creatures growled.

Razi turned around and saw the third and last creature growling at him. The creature's mouth dripped with drool salivating from Razi's sapid odor, it scraped its hind-legs against the dirt, and chomped in the air around Razi. Razi was still undaunted by the creature, blinked, then felt his sac in his arms and thought the creature was looking at it.

" My water!" Razi turned his back on the creature trying to hide the water in his arms. " This water is not for yo—"

"Gorowrrr!"

The creature ignored Razi and ran towards him. The creature furiously slashed his claws at the hybrid wolf captain, but Razi ducked his body down and avoided being slashed at the last second. Razi with his keen senses could prophesize every move the creatures made—kick, claw, slash, kick—Razi dodged each of its attacks by jumping up, moved his right hand to stop the creatures right claw, moved his left hand to stop the creatures left paw, and leaned back to evade a spinning kick. But just when Razi thought he was safe, the creature grabbed Razi and bit his teeth right through his neck.

" A-ack!" Razi cried after the pigmented creature sank his razor sharp teeth into his neck.

Razi mewled like a litter of wolf cubs when their parents leave them to go hunting. Razi could feel his blood going to his head, the sound of glee purring from the creatures' throat, but Razi continued holding his sac of water in his hands.

" Wolf-_ack_-Wolf…" Razi used his left hand to reach behind the creature's neck while he used his other hand to hold onto his sac of water. Razi's claws pushed deeper into the back of the creature's lurid, clammy head. Razi then used his newfound strength to raise the creature above his head and growled like a demon holding him. " Reaver Claws!

Razi let go of the creature, turned around, and then he savagely slashed its body with his small, razor sharp claws. Everywhere around the creature besides his vital parts small slash wounds appeared. Blood gushed out of the wounds. The creature then fell on the ground and made a large thud when he hit the ground.

Razi was more concerned about his bandana with his sac of water than he was worried about the wounded creature. Razi checked his bandana to make sure water wasn't leaking out, then sighed in relief.

" What a relief. I can still give this water to Jen. I'm sure he's going to be so happy—"

Lights flashed on Razi from above. The light was so bright it made Razi's eyes squint as he held his arm over his eyes. Even though it was suppose to be dark under his arm, Razi could see the light gleaming in his eyes.

" How'd it get so—" Razi shuddered when he felt the wound from the teeth marks. " Ow!" Just out of curiosity, Razi touched the marks of the teeth marks again, flinched. " Ow!" Razi without thinking poked the wound multiple times his fingers. " Ow (poke)! Ow (poke)! Ow (poke)!"

" The teeth of the condemned hurt, don't they?" A person who was obscure said. " I'm surprised you were able to handle all of them by yourself. But now that you've been bitten, you've become weak. If your strong you live. If your weak you die. That's the very entity of life. "

Razi's eyes finally adjusted to the light. He took his hand off his face and looked for whoever was speaking to him. Though Razi's eyes could see even in the bright light, he couldn't find the person anywhere.

" Huh?" Razi tried blinking his eyes, but the light only made him squint his eyes. Razi had to move his left hand over his eyes to stop himself from squinting." I-I thought I heard someone. Guess It just might have been my imagination."

" Heard someone; yes. Your imagination; no."

Razi felt something cut into his back. Though it was only a small cut in his back, the pain made Razi shudder. There was three things Razi was feeling—pain, fear, bewilderment—all vanished quickly when he turned around and saw no one behind him.

" What the..."

Razi's confusion tampered with his acute senses. Because of that, he was weak to being stabbed behind his back again. Just like last time, the wound wasn't too deep, but Razi still felt fear lingering inside of him.

" What's going on…"

What appeared to be shadows of scythes emerged from the ground. The scythes towered over Razi, surrounding him, and they spinned around and all tried bisecting Razi in half. Razi however was quick with his mind and legs, moved left, right, back again and again avoiding being sliced in half by the scythes.

Razi still had problems. Because of the bright light overhead, Razi had a hard time predicting where the shadows were going. One of the scythes sliced through Razi's right arm, one slashed through his left arm, then his knees were sliced by two shadows. Blood trickled out of Razi's arms and legs and he collapsed from his spasm.

" It hurts…" Razi held his hands over his open wounds and mewled just like a baby wolf would. " The pain… it hurts so much."

" Funny," the voice of the concealed man said close by. " That's the exact same thing I thought when I first felt the sting of my own attack. But I had to learn from it so I could get stronger. If you're strong you live. If you're weak you die. There's no justice in this abject world."

The scythes turned around and were slicing at Razi. Even though Razi was handicapped, blood was trickling from his knees and tendons; Razi still had the strength to get up and move around, but had to hold his arms on his stomach in order to move. Even though he was bleeding, Razi still held his sac of water in his arms.

" I have to get this water back to Jen." Razi jumped over the shadow scythes and ran away from them. The scythes fell down and nearly sliced Razi, but as Razi had his head down, seeing the scythes from the way their shadows moved, he jumped out of harms' way. " I have to be there for my friends."

" Heh. So you're just going to run away?" The voice of the unseen man said. " That's alright by me, you mangy wolf. I know that you have two friends. Yes, a snowy-haired swordsman and a fishman holding a metal pipe. "

" Daniel….Momo…?" Razi stopped running, still holding his chest, and turned back to the shadows of scythes behind him. "Is he talking about my friends?"

" If you won't fight me, then I'll fight them. Two dead bodies, a wannabe swordsman and a pipe holding fishman, I will kill them and take their weapons to put on my mantels."

" Daniel…Momo…" Razi clenched his fists and growled under his breath. Razi then raised his head up, his eyes swelled with tears, and his teeth glistening in the bright light. " Nobody talks like that about my Nakama's!"

Razi charged towards the shadows of scythes. Razi stopped for a second, the pain from his wounds made him shudder, but then he continued running towards the scythes with his claws extended. While he was running, Razi growled through his mouth.

" Wolf Wolf…" Razi's claws became sharper, thinner and extended even further out of his fingertips. Razi then jumped into the air and crossed both his claws together. While he was falling down, Razi slashed both his claws at the scythes. " X-Slash!"

Razi fell towards the ground and slashed through the shadows of the scythes. The shadows vanished as they were slashed, and the injured Razi continued to run. While he was running, Razi sniffed the air with his strong wolf nose for the scent of the hidden man, but to no avail was he able to find him.

" Come out and fight me, you coward!" Razi shouted, and then he shuddered from him exerting himself too much.

Razi knew about three talents of his Devil Fruit—able to transform into a wolf or a wolf hybrid, able to smell things 10 yards away or smell different odours normal people wouldn't smell, but his favourite was his ability to heal quickly—his wounds didn't bother him anymore and he stood perfectly still as he looked for the man hidden in the shadows.

" Where's your sense of honor? Come out and fight me like a man."

" Honor?" The man said far away. " What are you babbling about; honor?" As he was speaking, Razi's wolf ears perked up and throbbed. " Honor is nothing but a loaf ideal. There is no honor in this washed up little world."

Behind Razi his shadow started to move. His shadow protruded out of the ground, wolf ears, claws, and his face without eyes or mouth, and it grabbed Razi by his arms. Razi was stuck, tried shaking his arms to get him off, but was trapped by his own shadow.

" Grrrrrrrr." Razi growled while he was pinned down. " Let me go!" Razi pulled on the arms but he couldn't get himself free. The shadowy arms tightened around his arms and Razi gasped weakly out. " I-I have to protect Daniel and Momo. They're my only Nakama's."

" You do have unwavering eyes. Indeed your heart is full of lots of righteousness. But you're living in a fairy tale. There is no justice in this meddle world, there's no honor when it comes to fighting, and the only person who you can rely on is yourself. " Out of the ground came a large solidified shadow of a giant cleaver. The cleaver was floating over Razi and aimed directly for his chest. " Enjoy your last moments still breathing before I skewer you."

" Nooooo….please…"

" It's time for you to…" The sword fell from above and was about to fall right into Razi's heart. With his last moments seeing the sword, Razi heard the loud voice of the man screaming far away. " DIE!"

X_X_X_X_X

Umbrage watched the battle on the top of the trees. His body blended in with the shadows. Because he was using his Devil Fruit powers to control the shadows around him, Umbrage couldn't be seen below while the whole forest was ignited with lights. Umbrage felt a small beat in his heart as he felt his sword fall and hit a target.

" It seems that's the end of my little nuisance," Umbrage said to himself. " Now that the little twerp is out of the way I can finally proceed to the next stage—"

" Yeah!" Razi shouted below.

" W-what? How can this be?"

Jumping out from below came Razi. He launched into the air like a rocket and soared above the trees and into the sky. Umbrage, even though he was surprised seeing Razi come out from below, he still had his cold, expressionless look on his face.

" Wolf Wolf…" Razi moved both his fingers together and made a small ball with his hands. As he fell towards the ground, he spread his fingers up like butterfly wings and ten long, sharp claws protruded out of his fingertips. " Claw Dive!"

Umbrage didn't move a muscle. Growing from below the ground was a giant clay man made out of shadows. The clay man was big; he had a bulky body, a black body, a large mouth with sharp teeth, and two small beady red eyes on his head.

" I don't know how you survived my last attack, but there's no way you're going to get past this one."

The giant clay man raised his arm out to stop Razi from falling right into Umbrage and push Razi away, but the big, bulky clay solider was no match for Razi. Razi's claws drilled through the clay mans' skin, tunneled through his hand, and Razi was falling straight towards Umbrage.

" Here I come!" Razi shouted still spinning around. " I'm coming to get you!"

" Tsk. Talk about an annoying creature. Shadow Shadow Wall of Darkness!"

A large, flat wall made out of shadows raised up from underneath the ground and came in between Razi and Umbrage. Razi's claws were touch, but Razi bounced off the wall the moment his claws came into contact with it.

" Ah!" Razi screamed on the other side of the wall. Judging by the way he screamed, Umbrage could tell it wasn't the wall that hurt him. " Oi! All that spinning has made me dizzy!"

" What an idiotic buffoon. Fighting him has been nothing but a disappointme—"

A large lump then grew out of the surface of the wall. The lump stretched out, then the surface broke as a pair of small yet fierce grey eyes jumped out of the hole created in the wall. An angry, ravenous wolf with black fur that was hidden in the shadows. The wolf jumped on Umbrage and pushed him to the ground.

The wolf and Umbrage fell into the bright, ignite light. Umbrage crashed into the ground while the wolf was on top of him. Umbrage felt the blow and the wolf jumped off Umbrage's body. Umbrage didn't feel any pain, didn't even wince, he was just puzzled.

" Tell me, you, how are you still alive? My last attack should've killed you."

A shadow covered Umbrage raised his head off the ground and looked at the black furred wolf. The wolf didn't stay that way for long, its body transformed into Razi in his hybrid form, and Razi was chuckling.

" It wasn't easy. Once I realized that you could control shadows, I started to think. I realized by transforming into my wolf body, my shadow you were controlling changed, and then by transforming into my other wolf form, I was able to get away."

" That explained how you were able to stop my first attack. But I just don't know how you were able to find me."

The sound of Razi laughing got even louder, Razi smiled, said, " It's because of your heartbeat. Every mammal, human or animals, they all have a heartbeat. My super powerful ears were able to hear your heartbeat after the vibration of your attack. Hehehehehe."

Razi did nothing but chuckle under his breath. Umbrage knew Razi wasn't mocking him with his laughter. But listening to Razi laugh and seeing the joy on his face…Umbrage was disgusted.

" I think out of all the kinds of people that I know, I hate his kind the most." Umbrage got off the ground as he found his moment of good fortune. Umbrage could see Razi's shadow lingering under the headlights he set up. Raising his foot up, Umbrage prepared to step on Razi's shadow. " Take this! Shadow Shadow Night Step!"

Umbrage stepped on Razi's shadow. As he did, Razi's body became as still as a statue. Razi couldn't move his legs or his arms and couldn't even wiggle his fingers. He could only stare with his eyes as they were the only part of his body that could still move.

" I-I c-can't move…" Razi mumbled from his closed mouth. " W-what's going on?"

"As you already know, I ate the Kage Kage no Mi fruit ( Shadow Shadow fruit). I can do more than just control the shadows around me. I can stop you from moving so long as I have my foot on your shadow. "

" That fruit sounds familiar," Razi thought while he was too paralyzed to move. " Phoenix Fire would tell me about someone with that kind of fruit. But who was that person."

Razi finally got a good look at the man who was hidden in the shadows and was paralyzing him. Too most, he was the scariest looking man in the world. He was a person who was the same height as Razi but with devil-like features.

Umbrage's hair was black and his skin was a pale blue of which his lips, armbands and gloves he was wearing were the same color. He was wearing a red coat with a shirt underneath whilst his pants were black. He also was wearing a cravat, necklace and a blue crucifix-like ornament with claw-like appendages sprouting out from three of the cross' points, and a red Tyrolean hat with a white feather.

"As you know, that fruit was eaten by the former Shichibukai Gekko Moriah. But the person who gave me this fruit is my father Gekko Moriah. It's a fruit that's been lingering inside my body ever since I was only two years old. Because of my fruit, I was censured by everyone in my town. But over those years of being hated by everyone, I was able to master the true powers of my Devil Fruit."

Two shadows of trees protruded out of the ground. The shadows then started to change into they turned into two giant axes. Umbrage used his shadow fruit to raise the axes above Razi's body and prepared to chop him in half with them.

" Any minute now…" Razi thought while he tried moving any parts of his body. " Just one more minute…"

" My father left me after he gave me my Devil Fruit," said Umbrage while he raised both axes above Razi's head. " He left me. He left me too be hated by everyone. They all hated me because I was the bastard son of that monster. Kids can't choice who their fathers are. You are just conceived and brought into this world; who your parents are shouldn't make any difference. "

Umbrage couldn't hide his anguish anymore. The man had been buried inside him for too long, and he started weeping from his eyes thinking about all the pain, torture he felt as a child. Razi took notice of this, but didn't understand why Umbrage's eyes were leaking.

" Which is his eyes crying?" Razi thought moving his eyes to look at Umbrage. " I just need one more second."

Umbrage raised his hands over his eyes and wiped away his tears with his hands. Umbrage's soul was like a fishnet, it was trapped inside and suffocating without air, then it turned into something evil. Umbrage glared at Razi with big, red scary looking eyes.

" I want you to die! I can't stand looking at your face anymore! DIE!"

Both axes fell down and prepared to chop Razi. Like before Umbrage couldn't see anything behind his shadow attacks. But he felt a vibration in his legs as both axes smashed on the ground. Umbrage felt joy feeling like Razi was gone, but he didn't even crack a smile.

" Serves him right. Out of all the humans I hate, it's the happy ones that make my blood boil." A large smokescreen of dirt and bark covered the spot where Umbrage's attack hit. Umbrage couldn't see anything and felt a strange sensation ringing in his head. " No, he can't still be alive. Even if he transformed his body like he did before, I would have stepped on it and still stopped him from moving. He still can't be aliv—"

" Rowf!"

Razi in his four-legged wolf form jumped out from behind the smokescreen and leaped towards Umbrage. While in the air, he transformed into his human form. Razi punched Umbrage in his face when his feet first touched the ground, then he roundhouse kicked Umbrage on the left side of his head.

" Guoh!" Umbrage moaned after he spat blood from his mouth. Razi ignored Umbrage's pain and gave him his strongest head-butt. " Guah!" Umbrage fell down and crashed on the ground. As he did, Razi grabbed his head and cried in pain." Yeow! That hurt! I went too far with the head-butt. "

" Impossible. How could he have escaped my attack? It was flawless." Umbrage's neck nearly snapped trying to lift it off the ground. In the wreckage where Umbrage attacked, he saw a giant tree that had fallen down and was in the path of where Razi's shadow was. " This can't be. "

Flashback:

" I want you to die! I can't stand looking at your face anymore! DIE!"

Both axes fell down and prepared to chop Razi.


	5. Chapter 5

Little did Umbrage know, Razi could still move his tail. Razi saw a giant tree standing firm beside him. With no time left to lose, Razi's tail wrapped around Razi's fingernails and broke them in half. Razi pulled his tail back and prepared to use his attack…

" Wolf Wolf…" All five of the fingernails Razi teared off stuck out of his tail like spikes. Razi stretched his tail out, wrapped it around the tree, and cut a ring into the tree. " Sunder!"

Razi pulled his tail back as the giant axes were about to crash on him. The tree made a large squeaking when it fell down and shook the ground landing on Razi's shadow.

" Timber!" Razi shouted even though his voice was not heard by the vibration. Razi used his momentum and jumped off the ground. He jumped back just when both the shadow axes chopped the ground. Razi rubbed his head looking at the fallen tree and chuckled to himself.

" Hahahaha."

Flashback End:

" I see. So that last attack was nothing but a dub. Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; you won't live to tell the tale." Umbrage got back on his feet and held both his hands out. Underneath his feet, a shadow protruded out. " Shadow Shadow Giant Fist!"

A giant fist made out of shadows shot out and punched Razi in his face. Razi was pushed into the air and fell into the woods.

" Ahhhhhhh!"

Razi landed on the bush of a tree but continued falling towards the ground below. Umbrage vaguely smiled in the bright light of his head lights hearing the sound of Razi crying.

" Ha. Serves him right. He was just too annoying. But now I can get back to my plan to make the entire world just like me. I'll use the drugs Doctor created and make everyone a mindless zombie." Umbrage growled under the bright light and clenched his right hand. Doctor remembered everything he went through as a child and felt his blood begin to boil. " Soon everyone will become a monster like me. No one will ever think they are superior to me ever agai—"

" Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Umbrage heard Razi's annoying voice shouting above his head. " I'm coming to get you! Ahhhhhhhh!"

Umbrage looked up and saw Razi in his wolf hybrid form falling towards him. His five claws he ripped out in his last attack managed to grow back as ten claws glimmered under the moon. Razi pulled his left claw back, raised it above his head and prepared to scratch Umbrage's face.

" Moron. Shadow Shadow Giant Fist!"

Another shadow that looked like a giant fist shot out of the ground and hit Razi right in his face. Razi was sent flying back; he was pushed into the woods and was crying in pain while he smashed through trees.

" That ought to keep him down. Now I can—"

Razi's fighting didn't end just there. Razi was like a steam train that ran on his fuel—running, growling, and scratching his claws at Umbrage—but he was just punched back with Umbrage using his giant fist made out of shadows.

" You never learn, do you?" Umbrage said while he had his face down. " There's no way you can beat me. I'm just too—"

" Shut up!"

Razi was falling too Umbrage above his head. Umbrage just sighed and raised his hand up to use conjuror his giant fist made out of shadows. However, unlike his past attacks, no shadows came out.

" W-what?"

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"

Razi fell down and kicked Umbrage under his chin. Umbrage was pushed back and soared above the ground. While he was soaring in the sky he realized the area was dark, lightless. Umbrage couldn't understand what happened to his headlights, but then he noticed a smashed headlight beside Razi's leg.

" I see. I was too careless. All those times I was punching him I never would have thought he was letting me punch him on purpose. He tried to get away from me so he could look for my headlights, then he destroyed them. Clever boy."

Umbrage smashed into a tree behind him. Umbrage wasn't hurt by the tree. Looking at Razi's smiling face, he feared he didn't have long to live.

After five minutes of just staring into each other's eyes, Umbrage got mad. " Hey! What are you doing? Aren't you going to attack me?"

" Huh?" Razi replied while he stared into Umbrage's eyes and blinked. " Why would I do that? Aren't you at a disadvantage? It wouldn't be fair if I attacked you when you can't use your powers."

" Disadvantage? What is he talking about? He's just trying to trick me. Just like everyone I know, he's a liar. Everyone hates me. And everyone hates me because…" Umbrage started to think about his past. He raised his head down and covered his face in the night. While his face was in the darkness, Umbrage remembered everyone about his childhood—and how much he was hated. " I'm a demon."

X_X_X_X_

Young Umbrage was hated by everyone in his hometown Mock Town. Umbrage was crying as three angry kids were throwing rocks at him. Umbrage couldn't move, he was just too afraid, and cried while all the kids angrily threw rocks at him.

" Stop it!" Young Umbrage cried having rocks thrown at him. " Leave me alone!"

" Stop crying you faker!" One of the kids yelled throwing a rock at Umbrage.

" Monsters can't cry!" Another one of the kids yelled.

" Get out of our town! Nobody wants you here!"

" Stop (crying)! Stop!" Umbrage lost control of his powers. His hands glowed bright black and a lump growled out of it. " Leave me alone!" A pair of beady red eyes popped out of the lumps head. Sharp teeth came out and the lump growled at the kids.

" Ahhhhhhhh!' The three kids screamed seeing the ugly, scary face of the grotesque shadow monster.

" Mommy!" One of the kids ran behind a woman in her early twenties and hid behind her leg. " Mommy, save me from that monster!"

" Huh? What monster?" The woman looked up and saw the weeping Umbrage before her. The woman glared at Umbrage, grabbed her child and walked away with her child in her hands. " What did I tell you about being around him? You know you're not suppose to be near a monster like him. It's dangerous."

The shadow monster Umbrage created finally sank back into the shadows. Umbrage watched in sorrow watching everyone walk away from him. Just like all the other times, he was alone, and had nowhere else to go but the orphanage where he lived.

" I-I am a…monster?"

X_X_X_X

The director of the orphanage Umbrage lived in, an elderly man with a pudgy stomach, sat idly by his desk while three towns man were arguing about banishing Umbrage from their town.

" Director, you have to get rid of Umbrage!" One of the townsfolk shouted to the director of the orphanage.

" Yeah! Just today he attacked our children!" Another villager shouted.

" If he continues to stay here who knows what he'll do us!"

Little did the director or anyone else in the room know that Umbrage was listening to them on the other side of the door. He was scared. Scared of everything that the villagers were saying. Trying his hardest to keep quiet, Umbrage held his hands over his mouth.

" Tell me, did any of you actually see Umbrage attack children for yourself?" The director asked.

" Huh?" All the towns' men said in union.

" Huh?" Umbrage said silently on the other side of the door.

" I don't think Umbrage is any way at fault. It doesn't matter who his father is. Umbrage is a small, smart, and respectable boy. Give him a chance. I'm sure one day he might surprise you."

Umbrage cried ears from his eyes listening to the voice of the director, said, " Director…"

X_X_X_X

Umbrage lived in an orphanage of six kids with him, his blond haired friend Lyra top hat friend Wyatt, shaven bald with martial art tunic Roy, pigtail friend Georgia, and his smart, cool friend Dash with a cross-shaped scar on his right cheek ,as well as the director who took care of each of them.

The director had errands to run and didn't have time to get food for the orphans. Umbrage however insisted that he, Lyra, Wyatt, Roy, Georgia, and Dash would get the food for him. All six stood outside the front door of the orphanage while the director stood at the door.

" Now are you sure you're going to be alright by yourselves?" The director asked in his usual merry tone.

" We'll be alright, director," Umbrage said to the director. " We'll get the food for you. You just hurry up and finish that paperwork."

" Alright. Just be sure to be careful. You never know what might happen around here."

The director closed the door to the orphanage. He was gentle doing it and hardly made a sound. While the door was closed, Umbrage and everyone else in the orphanage set out to buy some food. Just like all the other times they've explored, Dash made sure he was in the lead.

" Do you think we'll be able to buy some meat, Umbrage?" Lyra asked while she stood beside Umbrage.

" I hope we can," Wyatt replied for Lyra. " I'm getting tired of eating just soy beans and lima beans every single day."

" You guys are stupid," Roy laughed while he held his hands behind his head. " It's obvious the food we need is candy. Little kids can't go wrong when they have candy, right?"

" I just hope we'll be able to afford any of it," Georgia said while she fiddled with her fingers. " The director's budget went bankrupt not too long ago. Everyone that worked with us left, and it was because they were all afraid of U—"

" Boy this breeze feels good," Dash interrupted Georgia from mentioning Umbrage's name. Dash walked besides Georgia and continued to walk down the road to the market. " Can't any of you feel it? Hahaha." All the happiness in Dash's voice went away as he leaned against Georgia's left ear and whispered into it. "Hush, moron. Do you want to hurt Umbrage's feelings?" Georgia panicked and shaked her head. " Good. So hush up."

" I'm just glad we can all walk together," Umbrage said while he walked with his five orphan friends. " I like being around all of you. Unlike everyone else, you and the director are always nice to me. You're all my friends."

Umbrage made everyone in the orphanage were quiet. Lyra, Wyatt, Roy, Georgia, and Dash were quiet seeing Umbrage smiling at them. Each of them rubbed their heads as they thought about everything they went through with Umbrage. Dash was the only one who had the courage to smile back at Umbrage and touched his right shoulder.

" Yeah, you're our friend too. We're glad you think that too, Umbrage. Now let's go get some food. "

X_X_X_X

Buying food at the market wasn't as easy as it seemed. In the market place behind the counters were people who were staring at Umbrage with cold, hateful eyes. The eyes bothered every one of the orphans, but neither of them were as scared as Umbrage.

Umbrage was terrified. The very sight of their eyes gave a chill down Umbrage's spine. Umbrage didn't like the market, didn't like how people looked at him, but couldn't help how they saw him. He was a monster too them and there was nothing he could do about it.

" A shiny red apple," said Lyra as she ran up to a stand filled with apples and grabbed the brightest red one. " Pretty little apple."

" Get your hands off of that!" The shop owner shouted. He swiped the apple out of her hand and started rubbing it with his apron. " The last thing I need is my apples getting contaminated from that monster! Unless you can pay for each of these apples for you and your monster friend, go away!"

" Huh?" Lyra said blinking her eyes from all the confusion she felt. " What monster?"

" You should know! It's that freaky son of a Shichibukai friend of yours. The one who's damned too hell Umbr—"

" C'mere, Lyra,"said Dash. He grabbed Lyra's left hand and pulled her away from the stand. " We don't need this guy's crummy apples. We'll just get food somewhere else."

Dash was the leader of six orphans and everyone knew it. Umbrage knew it especially. He was strong, brave, and looked out for everyone in the orphanage. Umbrage knew he could probably couldn't be friends with anyone in the orphanage. In his eyes, he was nothing but a damned creature.

Everyone moved to the next stand. The next shop owner, a farmer that should cut pieces of lamb and cow, brushed them off just like the last one.

" Beat it! I don't sell anything to people who don't have any money."

" But we have money," Dash shouted. Dash reached into his pockets and pulled out five 1000 beli bills held together by a paperclip. " We have over 5000 beli. That should be enough to buy anything in this shop."

" I don't want it. If your monster friend Umbrage has been touching it then I know it's no good. I'll probably die of the plague if I touch anything of his." The owner looked at Umbrage eyes. All Umbrage did was stare with large, frightful eyes. The very sight of his eyes was creepy to the owner and he just got mad looking at him. " What are you looking at, monster? Get lost!"

" Hey!" Dash ran ahead of Umbrage and stared into the shop owners' eyes with his angry, burning eyes. " What do you have against Umbrage? What did he ever do too you?"

" Everything! Ever since he showed up, there has been nothing but trouble after trouble in this town! We don't want him around!"

" We don't need you! I don't want to hear you saying those things to my friend anymore!"

" D-Dash…"

X_X_X_X

The six orphans had no luck finding any place that were willing to give them food. They wandered through the streets away from the market and looked for another place that would sell them food. They were all hungry, tired, and were all moping through their mouths.

" I'm so hungry," Georgia cried. She walked and held her stomach at the same time. She could also hear the sound of her own stomach grumbling and squeezed it trying to stop the pain of her hunger.

" I can't even remember when I last had food," Roy moped while his hands were swinging sluggishly down. " Beans don't taste like anything.

" I feel like my hat weighs more than me," Wyatt said as he was holding his hands on his hat. " It's like my hat is going to crush me."

" We're going to get through this, right, Dash?" Lyra asked clinging onto Dash's arms and squeezing it. " We'll manage to get food, won't we, Dash?"

Dash was too spaced out to answer anything Lyra was asking him. Dash stared at Umbrage. He thought about what he said back then, but was starting to have doubts. Even though he still considered Umbrage to be his friend, he was starting to have his doubts about him.

" Can I really be his friend? What will people think of me if I was?"

" Ah!" Roy screamed.

" What?" Dash asked as he turned around and turned to Roy. Roy was panicked, he kept checking inside his martial arts clothes for something, but whatever he was looking for wasn't there. " What's wrong, Roy?"

" The money!"

" What? The money I gave to you for safe keeping? What about it?"

" I can't find the money for our food! I lost it!"

X_X_X_X

Everyone searched everywhere for the money: the market, the streets, even by the ocean. They couldn't find the money anywhere. They were frantic, ran around the streets checking every spec of space and looking through every cornerstone asking people questions along the way, but they couldn't find the money anywhere.

All six—Umbrage, Lyra, Wyatt, Roy, Georgia, and even Dash gave up in searching for the money—they could only give up and sat defeated by a fountain in the middle of town. Everyone but Umbrage sighed thinking about how hungry they were and how much they needed the money.

" That money was suppose to last us for three days," Lyra said depressingly banging her feet together.

" How we suppose to go without food for three days?" Georgia asked. She started to cry thinking about the rumbling noise inside her stomach.

" I'm so hungry," Wyatt moaned. Just like Georgia, he also rubbed his stomach.

" Yeah, I'm hungry too," Dash said while his stomach growled. " But unless we can get the townspeople to understand our problem, they aren't going to give us any food."

Umbrage couldn't stand listening to everyone's crying anymore. He felt like his stomach was churning and his eyes were dripping like they were being rubbed by a sour odor. With every word he heard from them, he felt more and more pain building up inside of him.

" The townspeople will never listen to us," said Roy who couldn't even stand looking at any one. " They think we're nothing but a plague. It's bad enough they look down on Umbrage because he's the son of that Shichibukai Gekko Moriah, but now they look down on us because we live with hi—"

Umbrage couldn't stand listening to a word of what anyone was saying anymore. Trying to hide the tears he sobbed from his eyes, Umbrage stood up and ran away.

" Umbrage, don't go!" Lyra shouted. She raised her left hand out trying to reach him. " He didn't mean any of that!"

" But it's all strange to me. Was Umbrage's father even human? Umbrage doesn't look human, and I'm wondering if maybe he is a monste—"

" Shut up!" Dash yelled at Roy. Dash then stood up. As he did, Umbrage stopped running. " Umbrage, we don't care what others say about you. You're our friend and we don't want you to leave us!"

" Friend?" Umbrage said while his back was turned on Dash and everyone else from the orphanage. " Am I really your friend?"

" Duh, of course we're your friends. We can't imagine what we'd do without you."

" Friend…" Umbrage turned his head and looked at Dash. He was crying tears of joy that dripped through his mouth while he stared at Dash. " Thank you, Dash. I'm heading home to tell the director you're staying out late. Don't wait up for me."

Umbrage turned his head around and ran off. Lyra , Wyatt, Roy, Georgia, and Dash all smiled watching Dash run off without them. But after he left, the smile on Dash's face left and it became a worried look.

" I hope we can get food soon. Who knows what might happen to us if we don't get any soon."

X_X_X_X_X

It was dark out as the clock tower struck 7. The moonlight shined down on every home of every resident as clouds shifted away from the moon.


	6. Chapter 6

Dash, Lyra, Wyatt, Roy, and Georgia couldn't find any way to get food. They were all desperate. With little hope, they all believed they'd surely starve to death. No amount of liquids could fill their bellies. The only thing they could think of was stealing.

There was a pastry shop near Dash's, Lyra's, Wyatt's, Roy's and Georgia's orphanage. The shop was solely run by a tall, lazy chef who worked behind the counter. One of the biggest mistakes of the chef was leaving his bread all over his store. The chef slept soundly behind his counter, unbeknownst to him he was about to be robbed.

" Okay, Georgia, you're the shortest one of us; he won't be able to see you," Dash said to the scared, frail looking Georgia. " We need you to sneak up to him and steal a loaf of bread. That should last us at least one day if we split it together."

" I-I don't know about this," Georgia said nervously fiddling with her fingers. " Isn't this stealing? It just doesn't feel right."

" Look, do you want food or not? Or would you rather we starve to death?"

" No, please, Dash, I don't want that! I'll do it. I'll steal the bread."

" But what about Umbrage?" Lyra asked. " That goody-two-shoes is going to tattle on us if he finds out we were stealing."

" Don't worry. We'll just tell him we found the money and spent it on bread. And one of us is going to have to wait outside until morning so if the director or Umbrage asks where the change is we can just say they have it."

" But which one of us is going to wait outside?" Wyatt asked.

" We'll think about that after we get the bread. Right now all we can just do is hope Georgia can get us some bread."

" I hope she can," Roy said. He rubbed his stomach while he was talking. " I'm so hungry."

" Okay, Georgia, you heard him. Get going."

" Yes, Dash."

Georgia got on both her hands and knees and crawled through the front door of the bakery. She was both scared and excited at the same time. She was excited that she'd be getting food for everyone to eat, but scared because what she did was a crime and she didn't like being a part of the crime.

Georgia stopped for a second. She thought the owner had finally woken up from his nap because he stopped snoring, only when she looked at him again she saw he just stopped to rub his nose and went back to sleep.

" Phew." Georgia raised her hand to her head. She wiped away the sweat that was dripping from her head. " That was close. I have to be more careful next time."

Georgia could see a giant loaf of bread in the front of the counter. Georgia didn't know what was going on any longer. She knew the bread in the back were safer to snatch, only in her eyes the bread in the front seemed more tasty and crunchy. Without thinking, Georgia crawled up to counter, raised her hand to the bread and prepared to grab it.

" Finally," Dash shouted excitedly. It was too his excitement Georgia was about to grab a loaf of bread. You have the bread right where you want it, Georgia—"

Georgia's hand was stopped by another hand. The hand that grabbed her had the white sleeves of the chef. Georgia was raised off the ground and pulled up to the angry face of the chef. As she looked at him, she saw how his thin mustache resembled a pitchfork.

" And what did you think you were doing trying to grab my bread without permission?" The baker-chef squeezed Georgia's grasped arm. Georgia felt his fingernails scratching her veins. While the man squeezed her, he had the same angry look in his eyes. " TELL ME!"

X_X_X_X

The clock struck 7: 30 in the orphanage where Umbrage lived. Umbrage was sitting by a table, had a book over 300 pages long, and just finished reading it. After finishing the book, Umbrage looked at the clock. He was worried about Dash, Lyra, Wyatt, Roy, and Georgia.

" They sure have been gone a long time," Umbrage thought out loud looking at the clock. " I wonder if they're alright."

Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock

Umbrage heard someone knocking on the front door. Umbrage was happy hearing the sound of knocking as he presumed it was his orphan friends.

" They're here!" Umbrage pushed his chair back and ran out the door to his room. Umbrage had a happy look on his face watching the doorknob turn. " You're back. Why were you out so lat—huh?"

The person standing on the other side of the door wasn't any of Umbrage's orphan friends. What he saw instead was three angry villagers. The market store owner with an apron wrapped around his waist, the farmer, and a chef who Umbrage had never met before. Each one glared down at Umbrage making angry grunting noises.

" We knew one day you'd do something like this to us, monster!" The farmer shouted at Umbrage. " It was only a matter of time!"

" Huh? W-what are you talking about?"

" Don't try to act coy with us! There's no way you can hide the proof! Bring them in!"

More angry townspeople walked into the orphanage. Too Umbrage's great horror, they carried all five of his orphan friends: Dash, Lyra, Wyatt, Roy, Georgia. All five had silent looks on their faces as they couldn't even look Umbrage in his face.

" Guys!" Umbrage shouted. He tried running to them, but the chef pushed him down. After being shoved, Umbrage quickly stood up and rubbed his head. " Guys, what happened?"

" I think you know full well what happened, monster. We caught your friends trying to steal bread from our towns' bakery."

" What? Guys, is that true?" All five just remained silent and looked away from Umbrage. " Guys, what happened to you?"

" That's not all. Do you know what else happened?" All the anger in the farmer's angry face turned into a large, wicked smile. " They said that you forced them to do it. They said they had to steal otherwise you would use your powers on them."

" W-what? That's a lie. Tell them, guys; tell them it's a lie." None of the orphans said anything to Umbrage. Every one avoided looking at him in his eyes and made small moaning noises. " Guys…tell them you're lying. Why would you say something like that about me, guys?"

" Umbrage did it," Dash said. Not even having the courage to look Umbrage in his face, Dash looked at the floor. " He planned on using us since the moment he got here. We may of looked like friends but really he was the one taking control of us."

" No…" Umbrage became speechless. He didn't know what to say to any of them. All he did was gasp, stare, and tried to speak despite all his confusion. " That's a lie. I never did anything like that." Umbrage's blood raced too his head. After hiding all the anger in his mind, Umbrage shouted with all he had " THAT'S A LIE!"

" Sorry, monster, but there's no use trying to hide it. We have a confessing from all these kids. Every one of them tells us it was you who committed this act of treason against your fellow townsfolk."

" You impetuous son of a bitch!" The chef shouted. " After all we've done you give us this? I hope you burn in hell, you lowlife bastard. After you use your own friends, I don't know how you can look yourself in the face. Even though your face is nothing but a plague on all of us."

" They don't care what I have to say," Umbrage thought while all the townspeople were staring at him with hateful, scornful eyes. " They just want a reason to get rid of me. But why would Dash lie to them and tell them I was the one who sent them?"

" Here," the chef said to Dash. The chef gave Dash a long loaf of bread. " Sorry we were so mean to you. We didn't know you weren't really friends with that monster. Then again, who would ever want to be friends with a monster like him."

" You're coming with us, young man!" The farmer, chef, and man wearing an apron stepped aside and a dozen more townspeople with rope walked inside. " You're going straight to prison. There, you will be hanged. It's the most merciful death for a monster like you."

" NO! I WILL NOT DIE FOR SOMETHING I DIDN'T DO!"

Umbrage ran away. He ran to the door on the other end of the room. By opening the door, he ran out into the darkness to escape the angry mob behind him. The mob then chased Umbrage as they all ran to the door. But as they tried opening the door, it wouldn't open because it was locked.

" Somebody break this door down!"

All the townspeople worked together trying to break down the door. They all tackled at it one at a time. But when that didn't work, they started tackling it two at a time. They were desperate to break the door down and to get their hands on Umbrage.

Dash was suffering too much deep down to move or even hold the loaf of bread properly. Lyra, Wyatt, Roy, and Georgia all ripped small pieces out of the bread and pulled them into their mouths. Dash couldn't eat. His mind was preoccupied with the events that took place.

Flashback:

" Duh, of course we're your can't imagine what we'd do without you."

Flashback End:

" Umbrage…"

Flashback:

" Umbrage did it. We may of looked like friends but really he was the one taking control of us."

Flashback End:

A single tear dripped down both of Dash's eyes. He was prepared the prolong suffering of his betrayal to his one true friend. " I'm sorry…"

X_X_X_X

Umbrage ran with all his might. Even though he knew that his legs were smaller than the adults chasing him that he wasn't as fast as them and they would soon figure out where he was, he desperately ran to get away. He was in a harbor in the middle of night and was looking for a boat to sail away in.

Umbrage's mind couldn't hurt his orphan friends—Dash, Lyra, Wyatt, Roy, Georgia—how they all lied about him to get a loaf of bread.

" Why would they do that?" Umbrage cried but still ran with everything that he had. " Why would they say that about me? I thought I was their friend?"

" Umbrage!" The sound of the director shouting was heard up ahead. Umbrage looked up and saw the director standing by a storage house. The director raised both of his hands and waved them up and down. " Over here."

" Director!" Umbrage ran to the director. He frantically tried to talk to him. " Director, the villagers are saying I told everyone to steal, but I didn't do anyth—"

" I know about that, Umbrage." The director used his beefy hands to open the door of the storage house. " Get in. You can hide in here."

" Really? Oh thank you, director."

Umbrage diligently, obediently did as the director asked and ran into the storage house. The director closed the door behind Umbrage. No sooner did he close the door however did he take out a brass padlock and a key. It was the director's intentions too…lock Umbrage inside the storage house.

X_X_X_X

The inside of the storage house was dark. It felt eerie too Umbrage and made his blood cold. The inside also felt cold as a cold breeze blew on Umbrage's skin and made him shiver. Umbrage walked around the storage house, looked for a source of light, but couldn't find any.

" Er, director, it's awfully dark in here. Do you know where the light switches are? Director?" Umbrage tried opening the door. But no matter hard Umbrage pulled, the door behind him was locked. And it made Umbrage frightened thinking he was trapped inside. " Director, why did you lock the door? Director?"

" I'll be honest with you, Umbrage," the director said on the other side of the door. " I'm planning on handing you over to the townspeople."

" What? Why would you do something like that?"

" Because you're a bad kid. And just like you, all bad kids should be punished. And you're scary. Just looking at your frightful face makes me distraught. Not only me, but it daunts everyone you come across. No one will ever love you and no one will ever want to be your friend."

" What? No, that's a lie. If I'm so scary, then why did you try so hard to keep me?"

" Isn't it obvious? It's for the money. Everything is about money. Ever since you first showed up on my doorstep, someone has been paying me lots of money every week that I keep you. If I were to kick you out I would no longer get a coin of that money. But if something were to happen that was against my powers to stop, I'd still get paid that money. The most I would get is one final paycheck."

" B-but they're going to kill me. They're going to have me hang."

" Yes, but not right away. They're going to first make sure you're starving to death so you won't feel any pain. Too me it's the perfect anesthetic for someone like you. By the time you are hanged, it will be past the end of the month. And once I get my final pay, I'm going to sell out the orphanage and move to a life of much more luxury."

" B-but what would happen to everyone?"

" Well, since they'll no longer have a home to go too, they'll probably live out in the streets. But oh well. I never wanted to run this rundown orphanage in the first place. I only took it over from my father on his death bed because I felt sympathy for what he did. But after today, I'd rather just live the rest of my life without having to do anymore work."

" I-I don't believe what you're telling me, director. "

" Believe it or not, Umbrage, it's true. No one ever cared about you and nobody ever will."

Umbrage nearly fell over hearing what the director—the man he's known for most of his childhood—had to say. Umbrage fell against the wall. He felt his cold hands rub the surface of the wall. It was smooth, had a rocky surface, and gave Umbrage comfort rubbing it. Then an idea popped into Umbrage's head in his final moments of desperation.

" I have to break through this wall. It's my only way out. I just have to try."

Umbrage couldn't find anything inside the storage. He resorted to the only tool he could find: his own two hands. Umbrage turned around, clenched his hands, and he started punching the wall. Umbrage could feel his brittle bones cracking; felt the strongest pain of agony he ever felt before, but all his pain was drowned by his memory's.

Flashback:

" Stop crying you faker!"

" Monsters can't cry!"

" Get out of our town! Nobody wants you here!"

Flashback End:

" (crying) They were right! Nobody wants me to live in this town. But I'm not a monster. I'm just different."

Flashback:

" What do you have against Umbrage? What did he ever do to you?"

"Everything! Ever since he showed up, there has been nothing but trouble after trouble in this town! We don't want him around!"

Flashback End:

" B-but I never did anything! Everyone just blames me because I always just happen to be around when anything bad happens to them!"

Flashback:

" You impetuous son of a bitch! After all we've done you give us this? I hope you burn in hell, you lowlife bastard."

" You're coming with us, young man! You're going straight to prison. There you will be hanged. It's the most merciful death for a monster like you."

Flashback End:

" No…NO!" Umbrage stopped punching the wall. His hands were all bloody, a small crack was made in the wall, and moonlight shined over Umbrage's bloody hands that glistened in the moonlight. " I-I always thought there were some who actually cared about me. But…"

Flashback:

" I'll be honest with you, Umbrage. I'm planning on handing you over to the townspeople. Just looking at your frightful face makes me distraught. Not only me, but it daunts everyone you come across. No one will ever love you and no one will ever want to be your friend."

Flashback End:

" They hate me. They all hate me." Umbrage squeezed his fists even tighter. His hands felt cold. He could feel his knuckles bleeding with blood. Umbrage couldn't hide his anger anymore. " And you know, I hate them. They're all against me. They're nothing but lying, deceiving, hypocrites with no feelings." Umbrage only had time for one more punch. He could hear the sound of footsteps coming from the villagers. Umbrage, whose anger overcame his mind, pulled his bloody knuckles that glistened in the small cracks of moonlight, shouted, " THEY SHOULD ALL JUST DIE!"


	7. Chapter 7

The villagers finally caught up with where the director was holding Umbrage. The director signaled them by running in front of them and waving his hands. All the villagers took it as a signal and ran towards the director.

" Director, is that you?" One of the villagers shouted.

" Over here. I'm keeping him over here." The director pointed to the storage house where he kept Umbrage. " He's powerless inside that dark, quaint room. If you put a black bag over his head, he won't be able to use his powers."

" Right." The farmer ran to the entrance while he carried a small black bag. The director turned the key on the padlock and opened the door for the farmer to run into. " Good work on you, director. I'm glad you've seen the truth and are now on our side."

" Yes…I'm happy too…"

The farmer ran into the room alone with the black bag in his hands. As soon as he ran into the door, the director closed the door behind him and locked it.

It was only the small, scared Umbrage and the angry, corrupt farmer in the small room. And only one of them was going to walk out alive.

X_X_X_X

" Where are you, you monster?" The farmer said while his body and his bag were shrouded by darkness. The dark outline of his hair could still be seen in the darkness. " I'm going to find you. You can't hide from me." The farmer turned around and saw Umbrage. He saw him under the moonlight, his head down, and blood dripping from his knuckles. " There you are. You're coming with me—what?"

Something in the darkness spooked the farmer. It moved. The hair on the farmer's neck stood on ends seeing something in the shadows move. Then something crept behind him. Even though the farmer was scared, his eyes wouldn't stop looking at Umbrage. Then behind Umbrage, he could see the blood soaked kid's shadow moving. Too him, his shadow almost looked like a pair of octopus tentacles.

" What is going on—"

X_X_X_X

The rest of the villagers waited outside the storage house. The director was in the back of the group of angry villagers and waited just like them for the door to open. All of the villager's hearts leaped with joy at the sound of knocking on the other side of the door:

Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock

" Does he have the monster?" A female villager asked.

" What took him so long?" A male villager asked.

" Who cares," the man wearing an apron said. " All that matters is he has the monster. Let's open the door and let them both out."

The director took away the padlock after he let the first villager in. A male villager ran up to the front door and slowly opened the door. As he did, he could see more and more drops of blood on the ground. The door soon opened up wide and Umbrage was standing under the moonlight with the severed head of the farmer held in both his hands.

" What the—"

From the door a long conically shaped shadow came out and pierced the villager in his neck. Umbrage walked out of the door and stepped underneath the shadow of the moonlight. The man fell and landed on the ground with a large hold inside his neck.

" Ah!" All the villagers shouted in unison.

" He's a monster!" A female villager shouted. " Kill him!"

Every villager ran towards Umbrage and prepared to attack him with knives, brooms, and even pitchforks. Only a wall of shadows that looked like a pair of crab legs appeared from the shadows and stopped the villagers from getting any closer.

One villager got to see through a gap in the shadow of crab legs. He saw Umbrage. Umbrage's face had blood splattered all over it, he stroked the severed head of the farmer as if it was a kitten and laughed manically under his breath.

" Die!" Two of the shadows of crab legs clashed together and sliced the villagers head off. " Die!" Clay figures of shadows jumped out behind most of the villagers' shadows, took their knives and pitchforks away, and stabbed them in their chests. " DIE!" The shadows of crab legs sunk back into the shadows. A large black clay man came out of the shadows and stood behind Umbrage. " EVERYONE CAN JUST DIE!"

Things became a carnage for Umbrage. Everywhere he looked, people were killed by his shadows. The first one he saw was the chef. He tried using a large machete he carried with him to stop the shadows from touching him, but one shadow sliced through his neck and he fell down, dead.

The man wearing an apron ran for his life. He was so far away from everyone—he didn't care what happened to everyone else as long as he himself could survive—but he lost his life instead. He stopped because he was out of breath, then a giant axe out of shadow came flying towards him and cut him in half.

Near the end, the director was the only one left standing. Umbrage did that on purpose. He wanted the director to see what he was capable of. He wanted him to suffer! With every person he killed, the director was distraught and squinched uncontrollably!

"Umbrage, stop! I don't want to hurt you, Umbrage!" It was a lie of course. Sheathed in the director's pants was a cutlass dagger. The director squeezed the hilt of his dagger, lifted it out of his pants, and he prepared to slash it at Umbrage. " All I just want to do is tal—"

" SHUT UP!" Four conically shaped shadows came out of nowhere and struck the director. Two pierced right into his arms and two more pierced into his legs. The director was immobilized by the drills and could only gasp as Umbrage stood on a giant clay man standing over him. "You're nothing but a wolf in sheep's clothing. I've had just enough of your lies! Don't worry. I'm going to give you a death merciful for a lying, foul man like you. Goodbye…director."

A fifth conically shaped shadow appeared in front of the director. The director sweat heavily staring at the sharp point of the conically shaped shadow. And as he opened his mouth to gag at the shadow, it thrusted at him and struck him in his mouth. The sound of him screaming was gagged by the drill stuffed inside his mouth.

As the director was suffering a slow, painful death, Umbrage started to smile. A small lobe inside Umbrage's brain became tampered with his anger hidden inside of him. For the first time in his life he took pleasure in sadism and chuckled taking his shadow out and watching the director fall beneath his feet, dead.

" Haha," Umbrage's eyes widened as he laughed wickedly. " Hahahahahahahaha!"

" Umbrage!" Dash shouted besides Umbrage. " Umbrage, what have you done?"

Umbrage turned right and looked at Dash. Out of all the faces of the villagers he slaughtered, Dash had the most fear-stricken one of them all. Every pore of his body was drenched in sweat from fear. What made him even more fearful was how Umbrage levitated above his shadow and moved over to Dash. Dash feared Umbrage was going to seek his revenge on him, but instead he felt a warm, gentle hand touch him.

" I should be thanking you, Dash. You taught me this world is filled with nothing but injustice and only the strong will survive. If it weren't for you I would still be the small, weak boy I was before. So for unleashing my true self, I will thank thee by letting you live."

" Umbrage…"

" But I must warm you, Dash, the next time I see you, I will kill you. Until then, I bid you farewell."

Before Dash's very eyes Umbrage sank into the shadows. He soon vanished in the shadows and left Dash all alone. Dash stood over the dead corpses of the dead villager's, scraped his feet on a pool of blood, and he was crying from his eyes.

" Umbrage…what happened to you?"

X_X_X_X

Everything about Umbrage's past went away. He returned to the present where he was lying against a tree, sitting in a shadow less woods, and looking at the cheerful, peppy face of Razi the wolf-eared boy.

" This is my life. I am, was, and will always be a monster. The only thing is…" Umbrage reached into his clothes and pulled out three needles with serums inside of them. He raised the needles over his left arm, closed his eyes, and prepared to jab the needles into his arm. " As I am I am just a shell of my true monster form. But with these…" Umbrage jabbed his needles into his arm. " I will finally awaken."

Razi didn't know what was happening with Umbrage. For the past ten minutes, Umbrage did nothing but stare off while Razi did nothing but blink and stare back at him. Though Razi was a pirate captain, he was indeed naïve, incoherent, and his head was filled with much idiotism.

Then something's started happening to Umbrage. First two horns like those from an ox protruded out of his head. The next thing that happened was his arms grew bigger. But what bothered Razi the most was how his teeth turned into shark-like teeth that were razor sharp and looked almost bone-like.

" What's happening to you…" The events that were happening finally went through Razi's head. He shuddered, stood up and gaped at the sight of Umbrage's body going through a strange transfiguration. " No…you have to stop…stop whatever it is you're doing."

" I'm afraid it's too late for me now, wolfboy," Umbrage said while his voice sounded like crooked old nails. " I've already injected myself with the serum I've worked so hard to make go viral. As I am, the only way to get rid of this serum is by either killing me or making me calm down. But as I am…"

Umbrage's eyes turned into a deep celadon and his iris and pupils also turned celadon. Umbrage's clothes were ripped clean off his body with his new gigantic brawny arms, his face grew eight small eyes instead of his normal two, his nose became infrared like a ghost vanishing in the woods, and a large busy tail grew out of his rear end. What was once a monster became a different breed of a monster; a troll of a monster with shark teeth, giant white furred body, eight small celadon eyes, and two horns like the devil's sticking out his head.

" MY RAGE WILL REMAIN RELENTLESS!"

Umbrage felt serene yet berserk in his new form. He wanted to feel bones being crushed and smell the scent of blood from people's open wounds. Umbrage charged towards Razi and prepared to crush him with his giant arms. Razi, who was more surprised than scared, just stood there and let the great beast swat him with his big, strong arms. Razi was smacked by the hand and was pushed into a tree.

" Ouch," Razi moaned nonchalantly after being smacked away. " That kinda hurt."

" Rowwwrrrrr!"

Umbrage charged up to Razi and grabbed him by his legs. Umbrage raised Razi up, raised him over his head, and he smacked Razi to the ground. Umbrage continued raising Razi up, raised him over his head, and he smacked him furiously on the ground. But while he was doing it, Razi didn't even react to being hurt.

" What's wrong with you?!" Umbrage growled like a bear while he tossed Razi to the ground. " Why don't you fight back? Don't you care what happens to you?"

" Of course I do. I'm trying to become King of the Pirates one day." Razi was hanging upside down while he was in Umbrage hands. Apparently the blood went into Razi's head as his face was red. " But I don't really want to hurt you. Something tells me you're actually a good guy."

" What? Don't give me that!" Umbrage raised Razi over his head and threw him towards the trees. Razi smacked into the trees and a small cracking noise was heard from his back. Umbrage rushed towards Razi and pushed his hands into Razi's neck. The wolf pirate cringed from the force of Umbrage's arms crushing him. " I'm nothing but a monster! Just look at me! Always have and always will be a monster."

Razi was too cringed too usher a word. His larynx and pharynx were both clamped by his hands and he was temporarily mute. Only after enduring the pain and finally having the moment to speak, Razi raised his blood soaked face up and looked into Umbrage's eyes, and he smiled.

" I don't see you as a monster. Monsters are suppose to be scary and give me nightmares. But you are not scary."

" You lie! Just like everyone you lie! Nothing a mangy wolf like you says is going to convince me otherwise!"

" I'm not trying to convince you about anything. I just want to tell you you're not scary, you're not a monster, and you don't scare me. I think if we met under different circumstances, you and me could actually have become friends."

" F-friends?"

" Uh-huh. The best of friends until the end."

" Friends…"

Flashback:

" I don't want to hear you saying those things to my friend anymore!"

X_X_X_X

" Duh, of course we're your friends. We can't imagine what we'd do without you."

X_X_X_X

" Umbrage did it. He planned on using us since the moment he got here. We may of looked like friends but really he was the one taking control of us. "

Flashback End:

" I don't need friends! I just want to be left ALONE!" Umbrage tightened his grip on both Razi's larynx and pharynx. Umbrage raised Razi above his head, squeezed him, then he threw him towards the tree behind him. " DIE!"

Talking, even though he was able to endure it before, Umbrage's hands weakened Razi's strength and made him brittle. For the time being he couldn't move, couldn't jump, and wouldn't survive crashing into the bark of the tree.

Razi looked at the tree as if it was a sanctum and smiled weakly. He didn't know why he was smiling, but seeing the tree just lightened his spirit. Then from the left a blur of a figure ran up and grabbed Razi before he crashed into the tree. Umbrage could make out a fringe from jeans before the figure completely disappeared.

The figure stopped under the light. It was Jen who was holding Razi under the moonlight. He held Razi in both his hands, holding him like baby, and glared into the eyes of the beastly, ghastly beast Umbrage. Jen then placed Razi down and pulled out one of his revolvers.

" You're with him, aren't you? You're part of the same group Yoh is in, aren't? You three are all friends trying to hurt me and my captain."

" Friends? What are you condescending about? I was never friends with any of those idiots. I just need them to help me make my drug go viral. Than after it was done, I was going to leave them and head back to my one and true master."

" True master? Who is this true master of yours?"

" That's for me to know and for you to find out. I'll kill you before I ever reveal the name of my saint of a master."

" Well…" A clicking noise was heard from Jen's revolver as he pointed his revolver at Umbrage's head. " If you want to kill me, you'll have to get through my cold, dead hand."

" Well…" Darkness arose from the ground and surrounded Umbrage. As it did, the eyes of the beast illuminated in the darkness. " That can be arranged."

"Blazing Shotgun!"

Like back in the beach when Lucas was demonstrating her guns to Razi, sphere-shaped bullets fired from Jen's gun, hit Umbrage's fur, and exploded on contact. The bullets combusted and set Umbrage on fire. But darkness covered the flames and dosed them out. And with every other bullet Jen fired solidified tentacles that were made of shadows came out and the bullets bounced off of them.

" No, this can't be possible!" Jen shouted. Even though things seemed pointless he continued firing sphere shaped bullets from his gun. " How are you able to deflect my bullets?"

" I'll tell you. See, the serum I injected into myself may be hazardous to normal people like the ones we tested it on, but to Devil Fruit users such as myself it acts as a stimulus. But it also has a feral state where our bloods become more animal and barbaric. Normally I could only control the shadows, but now I can also control the darkness itself. I am invincible!"

" I see." Jen smirked and ceased his fire. " Maybe I should have some of that drug. Then maybe I'll grow fangs and horns just like you."

" I'm afraid that's not probable. See, I used up the last of the drug. I was planning to replicate the drug, but that pointy-eared friend of yours made me use up the last of it. But now…" A solid piece of shadows that looked like a tidal wave emerged and knocked Jen's guns out of his hand. Umbrage then grabbed Jen by his neck and lifted him up. " I'll kill you! Ahhhh—"

" Wolf Claw!"

Razi jumped out from behind Jen and scratched Umbrage on his face. Three scratch wounds were ripped through the beasts' cheeks. Umbrage growled from the sting of Razi's claws.

" You little…"

Umbrage smashed his fists into the ground. A wall of shadows arose from the ground and tumbled down towards Razi. Razi ran his razor-sharp claws along the shadow wall, slivers of night raining down and were lost in the shadows at Umbrages' feet.

Razi then dashed back, grabbed Jen under his legs, disappeared, and reappeared standing on top of a tree branch.

" I better let you down, Jen." Razi gently leg Jen down from his hands as Jen stood up and shaked his legs.

" Thanks," said Jen sheepishly as he turned his head away from Razi trying to not show his shame. " You really came for me, pal."

" Hehe." Razi smiled as he closed his eyes and showed off his sharp wolf fangs. " So now I'm your pal, right, Jen? When this is over, do you think we can go fishing together? I want to catch a big fish."

" Yeah, we can do that, pal." Jen turned his head back to Razi. He was smiling, crying a little from his eyes, as both shinned under the moonlight. " Nothing would make me happier."

" W-who are you two?" Umbrage growled through his animal body.

" Who are we?" Both Razi and Jen said together. Both Razi and Jen turned their heads to Umbrage, smiled, and made peace signs with their fingers.

" My name is Jen. I'm a loyal member of my captain Lucas. She is determined to be a strong, noble pirate like her father no matter what hardships she must face."

" And my name is Razi. Me, my brother, we're both children of the great Marco the Phoenix. But now we know him as Phoenix Fire. I'm going to become King of the Pirates."

" Very well, you mediocre pirates. Since you chose to fight me, a monster who condescends from his power…" Umbrage slammed both his fists and stomped his feet on the ground. Tentacles of shadows arose from the shadows and slithered everywhere. " I'll have to use the full extent of my power. Prepare to be sucked into the shadows!"

Razi and Jen worked as a tag team. They started by jumping off the branch and falling towards the ground. As they were falling, three giant shadows that looked like octopus tentacles thrashed towards them. Jen, who had the power to control inanimate objects, released his small orange soul and let it penetrate one of the three tentacles.

The tentacle in the middle was the one he had complete control over. It glowed orange from Jen's soul being inside of it, then it lashed at the other two tentacles and crushed them. They crumbled like they were cookies. Jen's soul then exited the tentacle and returned inside Jen. Before the tentacle could react however Razi slashed it in half with his wolf claws.

" Now that's what I call team work!" Razi laughed after slashing through the tentacle.

" Yes, but are battle's still not over yet, Razi," Jen said while he and Razi both fell towards the ground. " If only I still had my gun. I think I found a way we can stop him, but I'll need my gun to do so."

" I think I see your gun, Jen."

" Really? Where?"

" Under the big bear's feet."

" Uh-huh. Well, Razi, we're not getting my gun back. Are there other options you can think of—"

Razi and Jen were nearly eaten by a pair of giant shadowy teeth. Razi caught a vine hanging down the tree before they fell in and swinged himself away from the giant pairs of teeth. However, a shadowy creature that looked like a bat swopped down and tried to attack them.

" Razi, let go!"

" Let's go? Okay, let's go to the flying rat. Weeeee."

" Nooooooo!"


	8. Chapter 8

Razi and Jen both slammed into shadow-bat. The vine they were swinging on snapped and both Razi and Jen had to hold onto the creature in order to stop themselves from falling on the ground. Jen was holding onto its legs and Razi had his arms wrapped behind its neck.

The first thing Razi saw was the crimson red color of blood from the bats eyes, smiled, said, " You have beautiful eyes."

" Reeeeekkk!" The bat shrieked at Razi.

There were different things Razi and Jen did when they were falling—scream; laugh, kick legs; wag tail, curse; curse; Jen shouting " I'm too young to die!" and Razi laughing " hooray, we're going to hell together. Hahaha." But at the last second, Jen grabbed another vine hanging out. He grabbed Razi's wolf tail with his other hand, used his feet to push the shadow bat off, then they hang above the ground while the bat felling and crumbled hitting the ground.

" Hahahaha!" Razi laughed while he was hanging upside down. " That was fun! Let's do it again. Let's do it again."

" Razi, shut up."

" You little bastards!" Umbrage growled while he was on the ground looking for Razi and Jen. " How dare you make me play this tedious game of charades! Show yourselves to me now!"

" Wait, this could be our chance." Jen kicked his legs to swing both him and Razi on top of a nearby tree. No sooner did they touch leaves did Jen touch Razi's head and pushed his head down. " Okay, here's what we're going to do. I need my gun. I'll distract him and you take my gun. Then when you get my gun you throw it to me so I can use my ace in the hole."

" No, wait, I want to do the distraction."

" Okay. I guess it doesn't matter who does the distraction."

It was set in motion. Razi crawled down the front of the tree while Jen crawled down the back of the tree. Both looked like a caterpillar moving down the tree, then they both let go and their feet touched the ground. Razi kept walking forward until he reached the barbaric, berserk monster Umbrage who growled through his teeth looking at the trees for Razi or Jen.

" Ahem. May I have your attention." Umbrage flinched at the sound of Razi's voice as if electricity ran down his back, then he turned around and snarled his teeth at him. To everyone's surprise and to Jen's horror Razi pointed at Jen sneaking in the trees. " Hey, yo, Jen's trying to grab the gun under your feet."

" MORON!" Jen shouted, his eyes turned eye and his teeth became sharp like knives. " Why would you tell him that?"

" But you are. I wouldn't feel right if I told someone a lie."

" Dammit, Razi, I'm going to kill you when this is over."

" You dare try to attack me when my back is turned? I'm going to kill you!"

More lumps of shadows protruded out. The lumps soon surfaced and morphed into a pack of angry hyenas. Their voices chorused in an aria of laughter that started Jen. He shuddered at the sight of their teeth and nervously sweated through his head. Afraid that they would attack, Jen smiled.

" Good boys. You wouldn't want to eat me. I'm all dead meat."

" Dead meat is better than no meat. Boys, attack!"

All of the hyena's jumped at Jen. Jen screamed comically at the sight of their teeth and ran straight into the woods. But Jen soon circled back, screamed, " Ahhhhh!" Jen ran back into the woods again, but just like last time he circulated back, screamed , " Ahhhhh!"

" Is your friend just running around in circles? He sure is pathetic."

" Hehehehe," Razi laughed watching Jen run around for the third time. " This is fun. Haha."

" Should of known. If he's a pirate just like you he must be as moronic as you. Humans truly are pathetic."

" Razi, save me!"

Jen ran straight towards Razi and quivered behind his back as a pack of shadow formed hyena's charged towards him. However, instead of the hyena's attacking Razi like they were attacking Jen, each of the hyenas stopped running and licked Razi's wolf-like face.

" Hahaha!" Razi laughed while he was being licked by the hyenas. " Cut it out! That tickles! Hahaha!"

Razi transformed into his wolf form and played with each hyena—licking, running, and even licking each other's—sorry, got off topic. Anyways, Jen and Umbrage were both surprised with the strange predicament. Jen used the momentum to sneak away from Umbrage. Umbrage squeezed both his hands and raised them over his head…

" Enough of this!"

Umbrage smashed both his fists into the shadows where his hyenas were being controlled. The hyenas vanquished. Razi ,who was starting to like being around the hyenas, he whimpered like a wolf mopping seeing the hyenas vanquish, then he transformed back into his wolf hybrid form.

" Aww, I really liked them. Why would you go that to them, mister?"

" Because you liked them. How does it feel finding something you like only for them to betray you? I wish our feelings could be mutual, but you don't even have half the pain I've been suffering. But telling you won't do anything. I'll have to show you my pain."

Umbrage stretched his hands down and reached into the shadows. Umbrage fiddled his hands inside the shadows. Then Umbrage pulled out a giant metal object with a plastic handle that looked like scissors. Umbrage pulled on both the handles and snipped them in the air.

" Those look nice," Razi said. " What are they?"

" Their scissors, you dimwit. You're probably wondering where I got these."

" No. Where did you get them?"

" From my father. Just like my powers, these were giving to me from him. I keep them in a shadow storage space I like to call the Duat. Not only do I keep my scissors in it but every other thing I hold dear to me. Sadly, I'm going to use these to kill you."

Umbrage pulled his scissors out and snipped through the shadows under his feet. Umbrage wasn't like his father. He was slow snipping the shadows, but even though he was slow Razi was still standing beside him. Apparently, he was waiting to see what Umbrage was going to do.

" Razi!" Jen shouted as he ran towards the wolf hybrid. " Razi, get out of here! You have to run before he—"

" Shut up! Shadow Rise of the Quadruped Gecko!"

Umbrage slammed his scissor into the shadows. Just like each and every one of his shadow creations, a lump protruded out of the ground. But unlike all his earlier creations, two creations came out. They were giant gecko's, with four-webbed feet, manes that looked like they had fur but were the color of shadows, and three red eyes in a triangle formation. Each one snarled at Jen and Razi.

" Ah!" Jen screamed at the horrid sight of the gecko standing before him. " What the hell is that thing?"

" I wouldn't speak to loudly if I were you. My pets don't like it when people scream. So here's how we're going to play. I can only control one shadow creature at a time. One of these will attack you will the other one won't. But which one is it? If any of you make a sudden movement, that one will attack you, unless you find out which one's the fabled one and attack me. As I am, I'm pretty much incapable of moving. So, are you going to kill me, or let your friends die? What would you do against a monster like me?"

" Jen, what are we going to do?" Razi asked as he stared at the snarling face of the shadow gecko and was cautious not to move a muscle.

" The only thing we can do, Razi. I'll take the fall. I'll try to touch mine. If it's the fake it won't attack me. Then I'll handle Umbrage when I find out it's the fake."

" But what if yours is the real one, Jen? Can you survive being attacked by it?"

" Of course not. Though my body may be dead, my soul is still alive. It still harbors somewhere in my body. And if this thing attacks like he says, I'm as good as dead. But for you, Razi, I don't care if I live or die."

" No, Jen, you can't do that! How could you say something like that to me?"

" There's no reason for you to cry over me, Razi. I've lived a long and fulfilling life. If you were to ask, I'd say I'm over one hundred years old. But I still look handsome. Not that bad of an end, wouldn't you agree."

" Jen!"

" Razi…thank you. Thank you for playing with me when I needed you." Something wet rolled down Jen's eyes. It couldn't have been water since Jen's eye ducts were all destroyed when he died. Whatever it was, Jen wiped it away with his fingers. " Well…here I go."

Jen raised his right hand up and prepared to lodge it into the big gecko's mouth. Jen closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and his hand headed straight for the mouth. Little did Jen know, the gecko opened its mouth and prepared to sink its teeth into his hand.

" Fool," Umbrage thought watching Jen about to stick his hand into the gecko's mouth. " It's obvious I made yours the carnivorous one. And the moment your hands touch that lizards' tongue, it's going to be the end of you—"

Umbrage felt a gust of wind making a scratch on the left side of his face as something dashed past him. It was too his surprise that the person who made the cut was Razi. He ran straight behind the gecko, jumped up, and fell down as claws extended from his fingertips.

" Wolf Wolf…" All of Razi's claws broke off his fingers and sticked to his knuckles as if they had glue on the bottom of them. Ten more claws grew out of Razi's hands giving him a total of twenty. Using his twenty claws, Razi quickly swiped at the gecko. " Twenty Nail Swipe!"

The gecko was ripped to shreds. All that remained of it were small pieces that was once its body. Jen and Umbrage both gawked and sweated at the sight of Razi's performance, and Jen nearly fell down, but he was caught by Razi. All the fury from his attack quickly went away as Razi returned to his happy, cheerful smile.

" Are you alright, Jen?"

" Y-yeah…" Jen stuttered. " T-that was really something you did there, Razi. You really are impressive."

" Hee-hee. What kind of captain would I be if I couldn't protect my Nakama?"

" N-Nakama?"

" That's right. I want you to be a member of my crew."

" No…how could he have known his wasn't the carnivorous one?" Umbrage thought. " There were no sighs, so how could he have known—what?" Just like the other gecko, Umbrage's shadow was ripped into shreds. Apparently, it was done before he dashed to save Jen. " No. It's not that he knew, but he was willing to sacrifice himself for his friend. But why would he risk his life for someone else?"

" Hey, you!" Jen shouted at Umbrage in a demanding voice.

Umbrage shuddered at the sound of Jen's voice, then he turned around and pointed a finger at his chest. " Who, me?"

" Yes, you." Jen pulled out his gun he dropped earlier up and pointed it at Umbrage. " Trick or Treat. Here's your final gift. Now say goodnight!" Jen pressed the trigger on his gun, and said " Bang" before the gun fired anything.

Instead of a bullet a cylindrical container was unleashed from Jen's gun. The cylinder fell on the ground under Umbrage's feet. Smoke then seeped out of the cylinder and surrounded Umbrage. The smoke at first didn't bother Umbrage. Soon however he felt tired, but could still think for himself.

" No, how was he able to get that gun back? I thought I knocked it out of his hands. Don't tell me while his idiot friend was playing with my hyenas he actually sneaked by me and picked his gun up? Just exactly who are these guys? Could they possibly be what I'm lacking? Could they possibly be…" Umbrage fell knee first, then fell face forward. While he was falling, he continued thinking about the incidence with Razi and Jen. " Friends?"

Finally, Umbrage was defeated. When his eyes closed from the effects of the gas, he lost all power he had to fight.

Umbrage finally calmed down. His body changed from the berserk animal form into its normal, scary looking self. As he was knocked out, Razi couldn't hear him breathing, gasped.

" Jen, don't tell me he's—"

" He's not. The gas I used was part of a narcotic known as narcosis. He should be relaxed and should wake up in a few hours." Jen stared down at the sleeping form of Umbrage, and then he stared back up at Razi, smiled. " I must say, you surprised me. I thought for sure you were going to kill him when he said he was defenceless using his attack."

" But if I attacked him, you might have been eaten, Jen. And I didn't want to hurt him either. "

" Huh? Why is that?"

" It's because he just seems so sad and desolate. Looking at him reminded me of my childhood, and I just couldn't hurt him."

" You and him having a same childhood. Honestly, Razi, you're just full of surprises. Well, now that everything's cleared up, I should probably report back to Captain Lucas. She's going to want to hear this…"

Jen stopped speaking at the sight of Umbrage. It was much to Jen's shock, horror that Umbrage was up once again and was crawling towards the nearest shadow of a tree he could find with his giant scissors in his hands. Umbrage then collapsed on top of the shadow.

Jen pulled out his gun trying to shot Umbrage. However, Umbrage then sank into the shadows with his scissors in his hands as if the shadows were quick sand. Umbrage soon vanished from both Razi and Jen's sight, and they returned to silence.

" Hey Razi."

" Yes. What is it, Jen?"

" Remember when I said I was going to kill you when this fight with him was over."

" Yeah, so?"

" I think your lifespan has just extended because he's alive somewhere. And something tells me we're going to face him again, not today, but sometime in the future. And when we do… I fear he's going to be much more barbarous."

X_X_X_X

Daniel finally regained consciousness. Light seeped into his eyes as it was now morning. He was lying on a futon, his head was rested on a pillow, and for covers there were leaves on his stomach. Daniel pushed the leaves off his chest. Too his horror he saw bandages wrapped around his torso. Daniel tried getting out of the futon, but he fell down from pain burning inside his chest.

"Fuck," Daniel gritted his teeth at the pain from his chest. " I feel like shit. What the hell happened to me?"

" Hey there, sleepyhead," a man's voice said above Daniel. Daniel looked to where the voice was coming from and saw an old man smiling above him. The man was lanky, slightly hunched, had wrinkles all over his face, small glasses, and was bald. He wore a dark gray tunic and red shorts. The old man smiled at Daniel as the son of Smoker stared at him." How are you feeling today?"

" What happened?"

" You lost consciousness."

" No shit. Where is everyone else? Where's Razi, and Momo, and everyone else I'm forced to be acquainted with?"

" Well, Captain Lucas and the rest of us are loading the ship. Last night we were being controlled against our better judgement, but Captain Lucas got an antidote for us and brought us back to normal. She even restored three poor souls who were experimented on. Right now this Razi you mentioned is playing with Jen."

" What about Momo? Where is Momo?"

" If you are referring to the fishman who carries a metal pipe he's right next to you." Daniel looked left and saw Momo lying on a futon. He was lying next to Doctor who was sleeping on his own futon. " Poor lad. When we found him he was nearly dead. He was bleeding to death, so we patched him up. Now he just needs his rest"

"Bleeding? Was he in a fight or something? How could he be bleeding to death?"

" We have reason to believe he was against the man next to him. We also believe that other man fell in the water and your friend tried to rescue him while he was bleeding. Either he's a Devil Fruit user or he's just a bad swimmer. Your friend tried rescuing him while he was bleeding from the water pressure."

Daniel stood in silence thinking about Momo and staring at the unconscious fishman. While staring at him, Daniel had a visual image of what he thought happened show up in his mind:

Flashback

" No, I will not let you die! I already let my friend and master die! I'm not letting anyone else around me die!"

Momo took a leap of faith. Being the only member of Razi's crew that could swim and being a fishman, he jumped into the water and swam to the bottom. While he kicked his legs faster and faster, more pressure pushed against his skin, and blood dripped out from out his arms out of his appendages.

Momo could see Doctor. He couldn't swim; his Devil Fruit made him lose the power over the sea. Doctor just floated in the water while Momo swam towards him. Momo grabbed Doctor and swam to the surface, and more blood gushed out of his arms.

" I know you're still out there, Giru. I know you still hate me and don't want to see me, but I want to see you. No matter what it takes I will find you."

Momo finally surfaced with Doctor. He swam to the dirt and moved Doctor on shore. After helping Doctor he got out of the water. Momo panted, breathed, and laughed as he stood over Doctor, smiled.

" There. I did well. At least now I can rest easy knowing Emily's legacy will live on. When you wake up, promise me you'll always remember your sister, Doctor."

The lack of blood flowing inside Momo was too much for the fishman to handle. He collapsed next to Doctor. After lying on the ground for a whole hour, unconscious, a member of Lucas's crew showed up.

" Hey, get Mr. Murray our ships doctor. These two are still alive. They need help."

Flashback End

" Stupid Momo," Daniel said after thinking about the incident. " Risking your life for someone who tried to kill you. Heh. And you call yourself a pirate and a thief? I love ya, ya big lug. You're like a brother to me. "

" Ack," Doctor grunted in his sleep as he regained consciousness. " Emily? Emily, is that you?"

"Well speak of the devil. Someone's finally waking up."

The first thing Doctor saw when he opened his eyes was Daniel's face. Doctor jumped at the sight of Daniel as he was afraid of him. After jumping at the sight of Daniel, Doctor regained some of his senses and looked all over his body. " What's this? I'm still alive? But how? I fell into water. I should've drowned."

" You can thank Momo, ya idiot," Daniel retorted. " That dumb fishman of a pirate jumped in and saved you."

" The fishman saved me? This cannot be. Fishmen are suppose to be vile, ravenous, and hateful creatures who like to do nothing but heckle humans"

" Yeah, well, this guy is different. I may not have known him for very long, but I could tell he was a kind, big-hearted person. And I'm not calling him a fishman. He is a man who just does what he thinks is right."

" Kind? Big-hearted? Extraordinary. When my sister was young, she suffered from leukemia. Master Leopol, who specialized in healing techniques most sought to be magic, he took her under his wing. Ever since she left, my parents would spend less and less time with me."

" You think you had it bad? When I was six, I saw more dead bodies in caskets in the sea than I saw people in my village. When I was eight, my foster mother hit me with a frying pan every time I looked at her. And when I was eleven, I was shot at nearly three times every single day."

" My sister wrote me letters at least once every day."

" Yeah, don't commit. Why would you care?"

" Every letter she'd talk about her time with Master Leopol, this kid named Giru, and a fishman named Momo whom she adored. Oh, she told the wildest stories. "

Flashback:

" I'm going to become the greatest martial artist in the world! Just you wait, fishy! I'll hunt down pirates and take them all down!"

" Pffffffft! In your dreams, Giru. It's obvious I'll become the greatest martial artist. And when Leopol accepts me of being great, I'll be the one who'll hunt down pirates much like the one who killed my mother."

" I'll become the greatest!"

" No, I'll become the greatest!"

" Stop fighting over me!" Emily shouted at Momo and Giru.

" Huh?" Momo and Giru both said in unison.

" Stop fighting over which one will marry me, please."

" We're not fighting over you," Momo retorted.

" Get over yourself, Emily," Giru retorted.

" Hahahahah.

Flashback End:

" Whenever I would have to read mountains of books, study the endoplasmic reticulum, the brain, or every other part of the human anatomy, her letters would always cheer my spirits. But then one day…"

Flashback:

" I did it! I've got to call my father. I got to call him on my Den Den Mushi and tell him I'm not stupid; I'm now officially a doctor!"

" Umm, we have a letter for the brother of a little girl named Emily."

" Emily? Oh, that would be me. Thank you. Now let's see…"

Dear Brother of Emily

My name is Giru. I'm sure Emily mentioned me in her letters. I'm sorry to have to give the burden of bad news, but your sister is dead. I'm sure you don't believe me, but it's true. She died protecting a fishman named Momo. I'm sure hearing this will probably tear you apart, but just know that she always loved you.

Sincerely Giru

" Emily…No. No! No, you can't be dead! Emily!"

Flashback End

" After that I went into a rut. I couldn't eat , I couldn't sleep, I didn't seem to care about anything anymore. All I wanted to do was lie in my bed and one day dye. But the pain of losing my sister became too overwhelming. I just wanted to end my life as quick as possible."

" Really? And how did that workout, doc?"

" I tried killing myself with a knife. I was ready to die. I pointed it right at my chest. Then out of the darkness he showed up. His name was Umbrage. He told me he had a way to relieve me of my pain. He gave me a Devil Fruit and I banded with him creating a serum we wanted to go viral."

"Yeah, that Flinch guy mentioned something about a serum. So there was you, Flinch, and this Umbrage guy. Were there any more of you?"

" Umbrage once told me he was following orders of a man who he looked up too, but the only other person who helped us was Yoh. Umbrage's master could sense his dark hunger for power. We needed someone who had a ship so that we could steal from Flinch with our drugs to make our plan look inconspicuous, but then you guys showed up and foiled everything. "

"You're welcome. Now enough with the chit-chat. Who the hell is this leader this Umbrage guy looked up too?"

" I don't know. I never saw his face. But whatever you do stay as far away from him as possible. If what Umbrage kept telling me is even remotely true about him, he is not someone you would want to meet."

" Ah," Momo grunted in his sleep. Since both Daniel and Doctor were both injured, they could only watch as Momo lifted his head off his pillow. " Ow, my head. What the heck happened to me?"

" Does it hurt, Momo?" Daniel said with a smirk on his face. " I hope it does. What the hell were you thinking jumping into water when you were just in a serious battle? You're a complete and total idiot."

" Is that you, Daniel? I can't see you. I'm partially blind right now." Momo rubbed his fingers over his eyes, and he blinked after he rubbed them. Momo turned his to where Daniel was lying and he smiled. " Oh, it really is you, Daniel. Where are we? Are we dead? Where is Razi—"

" Hey, hey, calm down. We're not dead; we're safe. And I'm sure Razi's off doing hoodlum things like lighting trees on fire, chasing tails, and peeing on other people's clothes. Right now all that matters is that we're both safe."

" Your right, Daniel. I'm glad we both made it out okay. I just—"

" Okay, stop talking, you're starting to sound gay. I'm not gay. Are you gay?"

" No."

" Good, so we're both not gay. Now why don't you talk to the guy beside you? I'm sure you and him have so much you need to talk about. And while you're doing that, I'll be taking a nap."


	9. Chapter 9

Daniel closed his eyes and took his nap. He snored loudly while he lied on the pillow. Even though his snoring was loud and annoying, Momo ignored him and turned his head to Doctor. After two minutes of clearing things up between them, they hugged each other. It was the end of them being enemies and the start of them being friends.

X_X_X_X

Deep in the woods was Yoh. Yoh was in a panic. He failed. He failed to secure the drugs and lost against Lucas and her crewmate Jen. He ran as fast as he could to the lifeboats hoping to escape the threat that was coming his way.

" I got to get out of here! He's coming for me! I have to get somewhere far away. I'll be safe if I can make it to Logue Town."

Just when Yoh thought he was in the clear, smoke flashed in front of him. Out of the smoke came the one man he feared most in the world. He was a tyrant with two horns on both sides, and one jutting from the back of his head, giving him a total of three horns.

" Logue Town you say," the tyrant said while Yoh quivered in his presence. " That would be pretty safe. But I can lead you somewhere safer. The place I'm leading you is…" In just an instant Yoh was killed. A sharp object sliced through him through the center of his body. He split in half and both his halves fell on the floor. "Hell. Rest easy in Hell, you worthless pirate."

The tyrant was about to leave the island. However, just when he was about to leave Umbrage's naked body raised from the man's very own shadow. The man was upset with Umbrage—failing to follow orders and losing against a pirate—but unlike Yoh he could never stay mad at him for long.

" They roughed you up, didn't they? It's so nice to see you're still alive though."

The man picked Umbrage off the ground and threw him over his right shoulder. The man carried Umbrage a few spaces forward. Standing on top of a shadow, he sinked into the ground. He and Umbrage were heading towards their next destination.

" Don't worry about today, Umbrage. When we reach the city of Alabasta, nothing will stand in our way. I, the fourth ranked Shichibukai, will kill anyone who gets in our way."

X_X_X_X_X

While Daniel and Momo were still sleeping, Razi was playing catch with Jen. Because they didn't have any rubber balls they had to use coconuts as balls. It was Razi's turn throwing the coconut. He stretched his hang back and threw the coconut at Jen. Jen caught the coconut, but his right arm fell off.

" Ah!" Razi screamed seeing Jen's arm fell off. " Jen, your arm fell off!"

" Hahaha," Jen laughed as he rubbed his head with his left arm. " Yeah, that happens to me sometimes. See, my arms, legs, and even my head are put together by stitches that are nearly invisible. Before I ate my Devil Fruit, my arms and my legs were cut off."

" That's awful!"

" It is. But as you might already know I have a sick sense of humor. Whenever I think about my past, I start laughing. Hahaha." Jen pulled out a needle and thread from his jacket. With great speed and precision he sewed his arm back. After it was sewed together he wiggled his hands. " See. Good as new. "

" That is cool. Hey, throw the coconut with your right hand. Throw me the coconut with your right hand."

" Okay. Fetch!"

Jen threw the coconut like it was a rugby ball. The ball spinned towards Razi as it was about to fall on him. However, before it did, Razi transformed into his wolf form, jumped using all four paws, and caught it using his mouth. When Razi landed back on the ground, he transformed into his wolf hybrid.

" Ran Re Ro Romething Rlse, Ren? ( Can we do something else, Jen?)" Jen mumbled with the rugby ball in his mouth.

" Sure. Do you want to go fishing?"

X_X_X_X

After a quick trip of getting a fishing rod from Lucas's boat, Razi and Jen travelled to the other side of the island and went fishing together. Jen was the one who was holding the fishing rod, and Razi sat next to him in his wolf hybrid form and wagged his tail watching the sea.

" When do we eat? When do we eat?" Razi said impatiently while he looked at the sea.

" Calm down, wolf boy," Jen said as he pushed on Razi's face trying to stop him from breathing on him. " Fishing takes time. And if keep being this loud, you're just going to scare the fish away."

" Aw, but I want to eat something." Razi got into his pouting face. He folded his ears, puckered his lips together so they looked like a fishes, and his eyes bulged up as they were shaking. " Can't I have something to eat, Jen?"

" Man your good. How do you know how to do that?"

Razi stopped making his face, his ears perked up, his eyes stopped shaking, said, " Years of practice. My brother Himura and Marco wouldn't give me a snack unless I made a cute enough face. Marco always told me he wasn't my real father and found me. But now he's dead, and it was the Shichibukai that killed him."

" You poor boy. Losing your father is horrible. Believe me, I know. And just like you, I was raised by a pirate but never knew my real father."

" You know. You and I are like brothers. I like spending time with you, Jen. You're not just like a brother to me, but you're also a very special friend to me."

"Friend? Nobody's ever called me that before. I spent most of my life before I met Lucas inside a cage. I never got to see the sunlight, and the only things I could call friends back then were the birds that flew into my window and another inmate of mine who left the asylum.. Then one day…I escaped."

Flashback:

Young Jen was running for his life. Behind him was a man wearing a lab coat with a scalpel in his right hand. Every second that Jen ran the man would slice his scalpel at him.

" Come back, precious boy!" The man shouted behind Jen's back. " Can't you see I'm just trying to help you? You have powers you've yet to understand, and I can unlock them for you."

" Leave me alone!" Young Jen shouted at the man. " I want my daddy! Daddy, where are you?"

Young Jen ran straight into a deserted village where most of the houses were burned and some of the original villagers' bodies were lying on the ground. Jen escaped by running into a destroyed building and crawled through a small door inside the building.

After leaving the village, he just continued to run. He ran, and ran, and ran as fast as he could. He ran so fast his lungs were swollen with sweat and he felt like he was going to explode. But no matter what pain he felt while running, nothing stopped him from trying to escape the madhouse he was trapped in.

Jen then tripped on something lying on the ground. Jen fell in a mud puddle and his face became covered in dirt. After falling down, he looked back to see what he tripped on, and it was too his great horror to see his former inmate lying face-up on the ground. His dark-skinned friend, his eyes were widened, and his mouth was open.

" Austin? Austin, is that you?" Austin didn't answer Jen at first. Jen grabbed Austin and held him up. He then shaked Austin trying to wake him up. " Austin. Austin, say something!" It appeared to Jen that Austin was dead. After realizing the sad truth, a single drop of tears rolled down both his eyes. " No! Don't leave me! I don't want to be alone! Please, speak to me!"

Flashback End:

" I guess you could say I was lonely before I met Lucas. I was one of your crewmates that knew her the longest. Even though she seems a little hard to deal with at first, she's actually very nice. I guess that's one of her good quotes."

" She sounds great," Razi smiled at Jen. " I wish I could make her on my crew, but I don't feel comfortable making other pirate captains my crew. And I would feel bad stealing their crewmates too."

" That's a good thing. I like people who consider other people's feelings. It makes them more admirabl—"

Jen's fishing rod started to shake. The line started to shake while whatever was under the water was pulling on the string. Jen pulled as hard as he could to get whatever was under the water out, but he wasn't strong enough for it.

" This thing is heavy! I don't think I can lift it!"

" I'll help you, Jen." Razi transformed into his human form and wrapped his arms around Jen's waist. Razi tugged on Jen's waist as he helped him. " I'm helping. I'm helping."

" Razi, I can do this myself. You don't have to help me."

" Nonsense. What kind of captain would I be if I didn't have a Nakama?"

" But I'm not part of your crew, Razi."

" That's okay. I still consider you too be one of my Nakama. And like all my Nakama, I will help you."

" R-Razi?"

With the combined strength of Razi and Jen they were able to pull out the creature that lurked in the ocean. It was a giant green scaled fish with two giant lobster claws. The fish was a Pincer Fish. The hook slipped out of the fishes mouth and he fell towards Jen and Razi.

" Oh no, I left my gun on the ship. And my powers don't work on living creatures. What am I going to d—"

" I'll take care of this, Jen!" Razi shouted triumphantly. Wolf ears perked out of his head, claws replaced his hands, and a tail came out of his rear end. Razi jumped in the air and slashed his claws at the fish. " Wolf Claw!"

Razi quickly scratched the Pincer Fish everywhere around its body. Jen couldn't even see Razi touch the fish. He was too fast. And when Razi touched the ground, he snapped his fingers, and the fish exploded into dozens of meat pieces. Razi got hyper at the sight of the meat and pranced around.

" Food! Food! Food!"

Razi may've been a human, but he was also a ravenous animal. He jumped back in the air, licked his lips, and swallowed the fish meat whole through his mouth. Jen's mouth dropped at the sight of Razi swallowing the meat. But instead of eating all of it, he landed back on the ground, and handed the meat too him.

" Do you want some, Jen? We both worked hard for it; we should both have some."

" Really? Are you sure you really want me to have some, Razi?"

" Uh-huh. Please have some. It will make me so happy."

" Well, if you say so. I guess I'll have some."

Jen grabbed the piece of meat and took a bite from it. As the meat touched his uvula, he salivated from his mouth. The taste was plentiful. It tasted like a firecracker exploded in his mouth, with buttermilk dripping out instead, and churned in his gulch like sugar.

" This tastes so good. I thought my taste bud were dead, but I can still taste it. It's delicious." Tasting the fish nearly brought tears to Jen's eyes, but he managed to hide them through his smile. " Hey Razi."

" Yes."

" Can we go back to Captain Lucas's ship? There's something I want to say to her."

X_X_X_X

Jen and Razi finally reached the beach. But when they got too Lucas's ship, they saw her talking with the ship captain with the red nose. The site of him was unsettling for both Razi and Jen. Then the captain turned his head to Jen and Razi, looked into their eyes, and pointed his finger at Razi.

" You. You with the bandana on your head. There's something I want to say to you."

X_X_X_X_X

Daniel and Momo were finally able to get out of bed. However, they still didn't have the strength to move on their own. Lucas's doctor had to carry them to her ship while they had their arms around his head.

" This is so humiliating," Daniel grunted while he moved with the doctor. " I'm a swordsman. How degrading is this?"

" It could be worse," Momo grunted while he was being carried with Daniel.

" How?"

" At least it's a stranger carrying us. If Razi saw us this weak, he'd never let it go."

" Okay, here we are," the doctor said as he dropped Daniel and Momo on the sand of the beach. " I'd like to carry you further, but you boys seem like you need to keep your pride. So I'll just give you this." The doctor threw a walking stick at Daniel, and Daniel gave out a weak " Ow". " Here. That should help you walk."

" You only gave us one," Daniel grumbled. " How are two people suppose to use one walking stick?"

" I don't know. I'm a doctor not a philamprothist. Our crew are on a very strict budget. "

" Fine. Momo, you grab the right and I'll grab the left. We'll help each other up."

" Hey, I want to grab the left."

" It doesn't matter. Just grab a something!"

"Fine, meanie."

Both Daniel and Momo's quadruped leg bones were both badly injured from the last battles they had. Without being able to use their legs, both Daniel and Momo grabbed the walking stick. As it turned out, Momo's hands were very slippery. Daniel slipped touching Momo's hands and crashed on his tendons. The pain Daniel felt…it was too invidiously unpleasant.

" I should've stayed in bed."

Instead of grabbing the walking stick, Daniel grabbed Momo's clothes. Momo moved with his walking stick towards Lucas's boat with Daniel dragging behind him. Only when they reached the shore, they did not see Lucas's boat, but a new kind of boat.

What they saw was a small clipper ship. Its size was 161. 3 ft 22.7 ft x 21 ft. The ship was made out of ordinary wood boards, the mast was seen in the center, no gun ports, the keel was seen in the shallow water, and in the front was a giant wolfs head. Razi sat on the wolf's head and smiled at both Daniel and Momo.

" Hey guys. Like the ship? It's our first pirate vessel. I think I'll call it the Golden Hope"

" Razi, where did you get that?" Daniel asked.

" Yeah, how'd you get something like that here? Did Lucas give it to you or something?"

" Not Lucas. The nice old man gave it to me. He says it's a present for me helping him find his crewmate Flinch. That's pretty nice of him, wouldn't you say? So what do you think?"

" It's small. And there are no guns on it. It's a piece of junk."

" I don't know about that, Daniel," Momo said. " Sure, the most it can carry is five people, but it's better than that raft we sailed on. So are we finally going to finally get off this island?"

" Please don't leave just yet," Lucas said. Daniel and Momo both turned around and saw Lucas and her whole crew standing behind them. " I haven't thanked you for saving me and my crew. Please let us thank you by letting you party with us."

" Your right," Razi said. "Tomorrow we leave. So tonight, we party."

" Hooray!"

X_X_X_X

Razi, Daniel, and Momo were having their very first party. At least Razi was the one having a party. Daniel and Momo were still heavily injured and couldn't even move their legs. They could only watch as Razi made a clown of himself.

Lucas's crew were able to get Razi to drink. After having five bottles, Razi was tipsy from the alcohol. However, he then started juggling the bottles. After thirty seconds of juggling empty bottles, he threw them in the air, and did a handstand. As the bottles fell on his feet he was able to juggle with them.

" This kid is so cool," one member of Lucas's crew said as he watched Razi juggle.

" He's so talented," another member of Lucas's crew said.

" How does he do that?"

" Wait, I'm not done yet. I'm taking things up a notch."

Razi jumped up, caught the bottles of alcohol, and then he threw them higher into the air. Razi jumped higher of the ground and transformed into his wolf hybrid form. Using only his tail, he wrapped around the bottles of alcohol, swinged his body around, and stepped on the bottles.

" What's he doing?" Daniel asked.

" I don't know," Momo said. " I've never seen him do anything like this before. "

" This is going to be good," Jen thought while he watched Razi. " I just know it."

After stepping on the bottles, Razi wrapped his wolf tail around each of the empty bottles. He shaked the bottles around, then he threw them higher into the air. While they were up above and Razi was falling down, he ripped his fingernails out.

" Wolf Wolf…" Razi blew the fingernails at the bottles. Surprisingly they moved as fast as a bullet, hit the bottles, and they all shattered on contact. " Nail Cannon!"

Small pieces of glass fell down from the sky above. The glasses were too small to scratch anyone and shinned beautifully in the sky. Everyone who watched the glass fall were speechless. Razi finally hit the ground, but used his tail as a trampoline to bounce up and landed on his feet.

" Tada!"

Everyone in Lucas's crew gave thundering applause after the glass landed on the ground. Even Daniel and Momo clapped, though it hurt them doing so. While Lucas was clapping for Razi, Jen walked behind her and tapped her shoulder.

" Captain Lucas."

Lucas turned around and smiled facing Jen, said, " Yes."

" Lucas, I'd like to resign from being a member of your crew."

" Huh? Whatever are you talking about, Jen?"

" After fighting with Razi, I realize I'm not meant to be on your crew. I just wanted to tell you I plan on using your life boats to leave, go to the nearest town, which is Logue Town, and I plan on getting my own crew. I hope you understand."

" I do. And I have something for you." Lucas pulled out her two revolvers and handed them to Jen. " Here. They'll work much better with you than they'll work with me."

" Your guns? I can't take these. These mean everything to you, Lucas."

" Don't worry about it." Lucas pulled out two revolvers that looked exactly the same as the one's Jen was holding. " See. It's not the guns that count, but it's the bullets you use. I wish you luck wherever you go, Jen. Now excuse me." Apparently, Lucas was also drunk. She walked up Razi, grabbed his arms, and pulled on them. " Dance with me, Razi. Let us dance the night away!"

" Huh? Wait, I don't think I should—"

Lucas didn't listen to Razi and pulled on his hand. Without thinking she spinned him around like he was her rag doll, whacked him a few times on the floor, then did a contra dance with him. A large bump popped out of Razi's head where Lucas had hit him.

" This girl is crazy," Daniel muttered as he looked at Lucas dance.

" Wahhhhhh!" Lucas's doctor cried beside Daniel. " I'm so happy. Lucas has been so stressed lately, I'm glad she's returned to her usual self."

" That's her usual self?"

" Excuse me," Doctor's voice said. Both Daniel and Momo turned to the left and saw Doctor and Flinch standing before them. " Hello. We're just here to say how sorry we are for how we behaved."

" Yes, I'm sorry for the cuts I gave you, white hair," Flinch said.

" My name is Daniel."

" Really? That's a pretty dumb name for a swordsman."

" Even dumber than Flinch?"

" Anyways, we both wanted to say how sorry we are, and we hope one day you can forgive us. Now I must leave for I must return to my village and settle things with my parents."

" And I must be leaving as well. I have a captain to look after."

" Forget that. Let's party together," Razi said, he sticked his head between Doctor and Flinch. Razi was smiling and rubbing their shoulder pads. "You'll feel better after you eat and drink something."

" But weren't we your enemies just yesterday?" Flinch asked.

" And I can't eat this food. I'm on a diet," Doctor said.

" Come on. Live a little. Everything's a lot more fun when you have friends to share them with. We're friends now, aren't we?"

" F-friends?" Both Doctor and Flinch said in unison.

" Yep. And as a friend, I say you should party."

Jen was the only one who wasn't partying. He was impressed with how Razi was able to get both Flinch and Doctor to join them partying. And while he was looking at them, he looked down at his revolvers and smiled.

" Thank you, Lucas. I promise the next time I see you on my journey to becoming captain, I'll make you smile."

X_X_X_X

Razi, Daniel, and Momo were loading crates with supplies Lucas gave them on their ship The Golden Hope. At least Daniel and Momo were loading. Razi was chuckling to himself and hanged upside down on the wolf head.

" Aren't you going to be helping us load, Razi?" Daniel asked as he was slightly irritated.

" Nope. Hahah—"

Razi stopped laughing. He saw both Lucas and Jen standing in front of him. Jen had a large green backpack on his back, the same one Usopp had when he left Syrup Village to join Luffy's crew, and they were both waving to them.

" I guess this is goodbye, Razi," Jen said as he waved goodbye. " I hope we can meet again when I sail the seas in hope of becoming a pirate captain."

" Why would you say something like that, Jen?" Razi asked.

" I-I don't know. It's just a simple farewell, ya know. I didn't think you'd take it so seriously."

" I mean, aren't you coming with us? You're a member of our crew, aren't you?"

" W-what? What are you talking about, Razi? We just met. I don't know if going for you is the best thing."

"Quit the sappy talk," Momo said with his arms crossed. " Come aboard. We need you more than you need us. So why don't you do us all a favor and join us."

" Guys…" Jen leaped with joy. He continued to leap with joy as he ran up to Razi's ship. " Yes! I'm finally a captain of my own crew!"

" Don't be stupid, Jen. I'm the captain."

X_X_X_X

Golden Hope sailed away with Razi, Daniel, Momo, and Jen. While they were sailing away, Lucas watched them on the shore. A tear rolled down her eyes as she remembered a precious moment of her past she had with Jen.

Flashback:

" Lucas, I'd like to introduce you to someone. His name is Jen. I found him scared out of his mind in an abandoned village with Luffy. Promise me you'll keep him company."

" Okay. Hi. My name is Lucas. And I will become a pirate captain just like my daddy when I grow up."

" It's nice to meet you, Lucas. When I grow up, I hope I can become your firstmate."

Flashback End

" Jen, good luck wherever you go."

X_X_X_X

Razi, Daniel, Momo, and Jen all had bottles of alcohol out. They banged their glasses together as they cheered at the same time.

" Well, cheers to Jen, and our boat and crew, and where we are headed," Razi said banging his glass with everyone else's.

" Cheers!"


End file.
